Development impossible without moral values — Apostle Nyamekye

The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost (COP), Apostle Eric Nyamekye, has emphasised the need to integrate a moral vision into the concept of national development. 

He said the country must be intentional about it because it needed discipline to live by such values. Apostle Nyamekye, who was addressing this year’s “Royal Conference” at the Pentecost Convention Centre at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region last Wednesday, said “when there is behavioural change, our institutions will work”.

The two-day conference was on the theme:: “Moral vision and national development: the role of traditional leaders”. It is organised every two years by the Church of Pentecost.

This year’s edition was attended by about 1,600 traditional rulers across the country and from other neighbouring countries. The Church of Pentecost has already organised similar conferences for political leaders and the clergy. 

Commitment

Apostle Nyamekye said a people living with conflicting values would find development a mountain to climb. He, therefore, urged all Ghanaians to settle on some values and be committed to them to enable the nation to develop.

He said it was a fact that everything “rises and falls’’ on the leader but it was also true that the character of the people a leader served determined whether the leader succeeded or not.

To that end, Apostle Nyamekye said political aspirants could not change anything when they did not concentrate on the citizens. That, he explained, was because, “if you want any development and you do not tackle human behaviour you will not succeed”.

He said moral principles would result in strong institutions and structures that would uphold the nation, adding that, “When the social structure incarnates people, righteousness becomes difficult”.

Traditional rulers

Touching on the role of traditional rulers in helping to shape the moral vision of the country, the head of the COP charged traditional leaders to eradicate laziness in their communities by emphasising the dignity of labour.

Apostle Nyamekye said: “When a nation does not have its youth and the next generation in mind, it will just run and hit the wall. He, therefore, expressed disappointment in the rampant sale of land across the society and said places which were hitherto reserved for specific developments such as markets, dumping sites, playgrounds, including cemeteries, had been sold by chiefs.

“Chiefs, rise, teach some values in your communities and encourage the young people to respect the law, I mean moral uprightness to generate the desired transformation against such principles.

“When you are leading the nation or a constituency, there is a moral responsibility on you; the church will come in and support,” he emphasised.

Dwelling on some patriotic songs such as, “Yen ara asaase ni”, to buttress his message, Apostle Nyamekye said whether the land would develop or not would depend on the morals of the citizens.

Role of the church

On the role of the church, he indicated that one area that the church could really champion the cause was the transformation of nations by awakening the citizens to the need for a moral vision in the developmental agenda of the nation.

“We need to make sure that the citizens come to terms with the fact that we need morality as the foundation for development. The most important factor in development of the nation is the nature of its citizens, the values, the competence they come along with and their commitment to the cause of the nation,” he said.

The Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Stephen Asamoah Boateng, commended the COP for the conference and said as traditional rulers they had overarching influence over their subjects, and, therefore, it was possible for them to make a difference at all times.

He called on them to remain committed to the laws of the country as traditional leaders, saying the world was run on discipline and not feelings. Mr Asamoah Boateng further described the morality of the present generation as a sad story because social media had overtaken them, and called on the religious and traditional leaders to bring back discipline.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Central Regional Minister, Justina Marigold Assan, described traditional rulers as the bedrock of leadership who played a critical role in the socio-economic development of the country.

She, therefore, pledged the commitment of her office to collaborate with traditional rulers to push the development agenda.