In the 1930s, one Martin Niemoller, a revered man of God during the reign of Nazist Adolf Hitler was expected to speak out about the cruelty of Hitler using his influence as a Protestant leader, but Martin decided to keep mute because he was not a target of Hitler’s atrocious rule.

After witnessing Hitler’s authoritarian rule for years, he decided to speak, but his words became self-consolatory, rather than reformatory to the German Society he lived. His end could be summed up at the conclusion of this article.

In Ghana, the Moral Society, comprising of the clergy of both Christian and Islamic religions, and reputable members of the traditional religion are highly revered when it comes to the state of affairs of the country. Our traditional leaders on the other hand are deemed exclusively inevitable on state issues, and when it matters, even the politicians run to them to seek dignity clothing to cover their ‘nakedness.’

In every society where the moral fibre is decayed, that society’s future suffers moral crisis. However, in spite of the pivotal role played by the moral society in Ghana, the constitution of Ghana is quiet about their role in nation building. That is to some extent unfortunate!

On February 16, 2022, I was shamefaced when I watched a video of the leaders of the Christian Council led by my reputed man of God and Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Rt. Rev. Dr Paul Kwabena Boafo call on the Former President of Ghana, John Mahama to intervene in the impasse that surrounded the controversial Electronic Transaction Bill (E-Levy).

Needful as that call would seem, my letdown moment was when in the full glare of the revered men of God, in their genteelness drawn from the pride in cassock and pastoral suit and tie, the Former President told them that “I am happy that that rowdy scene has awoken your consciences, that you must intervene,” referencing the chaos that happened in Parliament over the passage of the e-levy.

The gravity that that expression carried should not excite anyone who has conscience for society, particularly the peace of that society. It was a dent on the leadership of the Christian community in Ghana to have been met by that bitter comment from the Former President.

The political infiltration and machinations by political leaders have in recent times rendered the moral society ‘useless’ or at best ‘irrelevant’. This has quietened the once vociferous ‘group’ who are now gripped with fear and timidity, owing to fear of intimidation and attacks by some members of the political class.

To some, that fear springs from being labelled a sympathizer of a certain political party. Hence men who should speak to national issues have lost the mojo to do so.  

It is for this reason that it became interesting if not funny when Rev. Prof. Matey, a former moderator of the Presbyterian Church, who was known for his constant criticism of the previous administration stated that he still speaks to national issues but with a change of style.

The man of God said, instead of talking as he used to do, he now uses text messaging. “So I am still speaking,” he insisted when asked about his seeming silence on national issues. I would not fault the reverend minister for his text-messaging approach to critiquing national issues. I only wish I could still hear him loudly and clearly calling  “enyansafo ee, mo wo hen?”  to wit “where are you, wise people?”

Many things have happened and continue to happen without the moral society condemning. The worrying precedence is the perception that has gained root that a group of people only find their voices only when a particular party is in power. To build a society with such a hypocritical approach would be the fastest way of creating a divisive society.

It is often rare to hear the National Peace Council come out strongly to condemn actions and inactions of certain people with political leanings, especially when such actions and inactions have the potency of marring the peace of the country. Inasmuch as their mode of operation may not always have to do with public utterances, their loud silence on certain issues may be taken to be their consent of same.

With the intensity of the 2024 General Elections getting high, one cannot expect silence and sheer condemnation over certain comments like what Bryn Acheampong made, that “the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will never hand over power to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).”

This comment was only a follow-up to a similar one a presidential staffer, Mr Lord Commey made in October 2021 at a National Delegates Conference of the NPP. If such treasonable comments are just condemned and left to linger on, will this country go beyond the 2024 elections? It is even more irking that such irresponsible comments come from people who are supposed to know better–law makers as such and those who supposedly have strong links to the presidency.

Yet the more disturbing is the spin that political communicators put on such comments to play the equalization game. Does the fact that a certain member of the NDC made a similar comment in the past warrant a retaliatory one from the NPP, the party in government which should be more concerned about salvaging the economic catastrophe we find ourselves in? 

Again, when most Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) go mute over the economic woes we are faced with, the politicians begin to think that they can hold this country and flip it over like the trending ‘flip bottle challenge.’ Ghana has been in economic turmoil and the cry of the citizens can almost be likened to the days when people called for “blood to flow” yet we don’t wish that even the blood of a mosquito is spilled.

It is for this reason that reasonable voices must speak up, against the high cost of living in an International Monetary Fund era, with citizens getting pummeled with new taxes that get the quickest assent from the president, while pensioners’ investments remain locked up over government’s infamous Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.

If some of our chiefs and kings, certain government appointees and even the presidency are complicit in the ‘galamsey’ conundrum, then we are doomed because the very conscience that should right the wrongs of the society cannot be trusted. There are many CSOs in the country, yet how many of them have spoken about the infamous Frimpong-Boateng ‘galamsey’ report?

And where are the clergy who trekked to a ‘galamsey’ site to pray against illegal mining? We need more prayers now that it appears that their prayer and trip yielded no result, or has not yielded result yet.  If the president was bold to put his presidency on the line in an attempt to fight illegal mining and failed woefully, should he not be called out, to step down as a matter of principle? But what do we see? A deafening silence that suggests that there are no conscionable voices in Ghana, or rather only such voices are heard when the wrongs have to do with a certain party in government? 

There were lots of loud voices in the media during the previous NDC administration who lost their voices as soon as government changed. If such media moguls, some of whom are now government appointees have lost their voices because they are practising table manners, will they find their voices back when the status quo changes?

The recent 2022 US Human Right Report on Ghana puts the country in a very bad light, yet the findings of the  report are not contestable, neither are they unfamiliar  in recent years. One would have thought that the gruesome murder of Ahmed Suale of Tiger Eye P.I in 2019 would have served as a clarion call to concerned moral society to take the media stakeholders like the National Media Commission to task, but in 2023, the issue is almost dead and journalists continue to practice in an unsafe haven, as a report compiled by the Communications Department of the University of Ghana, and the Media Foundation for West Africa, reveal what is already a public knowledge that “There is growing sense of insecurity among journalists in Ghana” and that “Journalists feel that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary do little to protect their safety” 

The US Human Right Report, once again brings back the conversations about the recent harassment of key personalities like Oliver Barker Vormawor and the brutalities meted out to innocent victims at Ashaiman by the military with impunity. These happenings only tell of how much more progress we have made in infringing human rights than building infrastructures. Sad it is that people who have voice have become so quiet in spite of these Hitler-like atrocities and it had to take the US to report to us the very things that are happening under our noses. Atrocities resulting from arbitrary deprivation of life and politically motivated killings, as captured on page 2 of the report couldn’t be swept under the carpet in any serious country, but in Ghana, it was. The irony of all this is that, the very ‘Hitler-like’ misrule, and human right infringement are happening under the watch of a president much touted as a human right lawyer, fighter, advocate, etc but to even speak on the unfortunate death of the 8 innocent victims in the 2020 elections has become an unrealistic expectation.

Shall we all agree that the Council of State has outlived its usefulness and needs to be scrapped? If the counsel of a council is not binding on the one who is being counselled (counselee), how do we believe that such agency has any meaningful role to play, to provide sound advice against all the aforementioned ills I have spelt out? Where are the Christian Council, the Catholic Bishop Conference, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Ghana Muslim Mission, etc? You should not be heard only on matters of LGBTQ+. That same energy we garner in condemning the LGBTQ+ should be sustained in condemning all other ills in the country in no uncertain terms, without any fear or favour. 

We are edging closer to a period in our life as a country when we will look back a decade later with the words of Martin Niemoller haunting  us, when he supported Nazist Adolf Hitler and failed to speak about his cruelty because, as I said in my introduction, he was not a direct target of Hitler. As he later remarked when he was eventually arrested when he thought he could speak at last, his words, which have become so profound in the world today should remind all right-thinking members of the society that,

‘First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out-because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.

May these words of Niemoller shake the conscience of our moral society, that they would be able to fearlessly speak against the ills of our society while there is still peace.

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