General News of Sunday, 2 February 2014

Source: Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, JAPAN.

Only last week I wrote an article here on how we black folks sometimes allow our critical faculties, our ability to rationalize and think critically and have a pragmatic and scientific evaluation of facts and the evidence to be drown out by blind and unquestionable acceptance of things that defy reason and logic and are packaged and sold to us in the name of religion.

Everybody knows that the Ghana cedi has been in a free fall and the government has proven incapable so far in dealing with the situation. Investor confidence in the economy is low and business confidence in the country is reported to be at an all-time low according to a recent report in the Daily Graphic.

The cedi has already depreciated by three per cent against the major international currencies this month. The US dollar, which sold at Ghc2.20 on the local foreign exchange market before Christmas last year, now sells at Ghc2.60. The British pound, which sold at Ghc3 now sells at Ghc4.20. The euro and CFA are also selling at Ghc3.50 and Ghc4.80 respectively. In 2013, the local currency suffered 17-per cent depreciation. The year-on-year depreciation shows a 21.96 per cent depreciation of the cedi against the dollar; 28.88 per cent against the pound sterling; 23.98 per cent against the euro and 25.54 per cent against the Swiss franc.

To be honest, the Bank of Ghana recently injected $20 million into critical areas of the economy as part of efforts to shore up the cedi but this will barely scratch the surface of the problem. The government has proven inefficient in its handling of the economy so when Archbishop Duncan -Williams had the President, the Finance Minister, the Governor of Bank of Ghana and other top leaders of the government in his audience at his church recently and he had advice to offer and some commands to give, I was expecting him to command the President and his team to put in policies that will make the falling cedi to rise and to restore investor confidence in the economy. I was expecting him to command the President to fight corruption in his government to restore peoples confidence in the governing process, I was expecting him to command the President to use judiciously the monies being borrowed to invest in the countrys infrastructure and its people so that the country will be better positioned to compete as a preferred destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) thus creating jobs for the teeming army of unemployed youth in the country. I and many rational thinking Ghanaians would have loved to see the Archbishop issue commands in the name of Jesus to the President and his team to address all these issues and many others crying for attention.

Instead he decided to do the unthinkable by according to the news report spiritually commanding the Ghana cedi to stop falling and start to rise in the name of Jesus. What? Command the cedi to stop falling? Was it meant to be a prank or something? Have Ghanaian pastors lost it? Is this pastor serious?

Read the relevant part of the news article below. as captured by RadioXYZonline.com.

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams has spiritually commanded the falling cedi to rise.

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COMMENT: Is Duncan-Williams' spiritual command to the falling cedi a bad joke?