The average Ghanaian Christian is confusing me, and this why:
Christian is the name given to one who is a follower of Christ and Christ is no simple Person. He is God, He is the Supreme Being and He is the Second Person in the Triune God who created Heaven and Earth, the Cosmos and all of creation.
This thing about Three Persons in One God confuses most non-Christian. There is Only One God and this One God has Three Personalities, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, who are united as One in the Blessed Holy Trinity.
They work and does everything as One. For whenever God the Father creates, He does so through God the Son and by the Power of God the Holy Spirit.
This mystery can be simply explained by using a human as example. A man, Amikaketo, has more than one personality, as a husband, a father and a worker, all under his name. So also, we have One God in Three Persons.
God the Son, also known as Jesus Christ, came down from Heaven and lived as One of us. He brought the Godhead closer to us and made us to understand that we have a loving God who we can endear and call Father. His LovingArms are always opened to embrace and hug us, the righteous and sinners alike (Luke 15:11-32).
We have a God who is ready and willing to forgive us our sins, and lead us away from hell and damnation and take us to Heaven, where we belong.
Jesus left behind a number of followers who He commissioned to spread His Good News and bring souls over to Him (Matthew: 28:18-20). To this day many are baptised into Christianity. And here in Ghana, we have over 22 million Christians making up 71% of the population. But our love for Christ seems watery.
In the 1950’s a man worked his way through leading us to independence. He was Kwame Nkrumah. It was said that he was Catholic and had at one point in time he had wanted to be a Catholic priest. He rather entered into another vocation called politics. After, becoming the leader of the new nation called Ghana, Nkrumah decided to do what pleased him most.
He kept transforming the Will of the People, the Constitution, which brought him into power and, in 1964, he set aside the destiny of all Ghanaians by making himself the President for Life in a One-Party state with his CPP as the only political party.
No Ghanaian could decide who to elect, as Nkrumah appointed MPs for the people. He became the Law and Lord it over Ghanaians and even comparing himself to Jesus Christ, as his followers would always ask Ghanaians to follow him, for he would make us fishers of men.
The little ones who Jesus warned, that they should be allowed to come to Him, were rather drawn to Nkrumah. He formed the Young Pioneers Movement and indoctrinated them to hold him over and above their parents and even above God.
These kids would be gathered under big trees and told to shut their eyes and pray to God for sweets. The ignorant ones will pray and pray and pray and nothing will fall in their open palms.
Then, they will be asked to close their eyes and pray to Nkrumah for sweets and lo and behold, immediately they open their mouths, sweets will rain down from the hands of adults hiding in the branches above.
So, powerful did these little toddlers and kids become by the power of Nkrumah that their allegiance was to Nkrumah and not to God or even to their parents whom they could readily report them to the authorities if they ever said something against Nkrumah.
With the above,the average Ghanaian Christian has both Christ to adore and Nkrumah to acknowledge. But something interesting is happening now. As a Christian nation with so many Christian churches and believers, there is nothing that unites us, apart from the mention of the Name, Jesus. With different ideologies, it is the hope that Christians in Ghana, will have one icon to turn to, where we will come together as one, uniting and building a loving Christian society.
H.E. Nana Akufo Addo, brought up this idea of a National Cathedral and many things were seen wrong at its construction stage even as some seasoned men of God were alleged to have gone against the teachings of Christ and misconducted themselves.
The attacks on the National Cathedral comes from the lips of many Christians, who instead of coming out with suggestions as to how the over 22 million of Ghanaians could fund this laudable project, they rather turn round to condemn it, even quoting from Scriptures. So, the project is now at a standstill. And the president is condemned for attempting to unite Christians.
Meanwhile, some few kilometers away, a beautiful “temple,” has been built to honour Kwame Nkrumah. No one, no Christian in Ghana, is demanding to know how much it cost the taxpayer and whether it was necessary to put it up. Everybody is silent about the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum but attacking the National Cathedral.
So, I ask Christians in Ghana, who is more important in your life? Nkrumah or Jesus Christ?
Hon. Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
