JOY presents manifesto to religious bodies
The independent candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, popularly known as JOY, has presented his manifesto, which he prefers to call policy foundation, to the leaders of some religious organisations to demonstrate his commitment to make religious and traditional leaders an integral part of his government, if given the nod.
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Presenting his policy foundation document to the office of the Chief Imam, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Methodist Church and the Catholic Bishops Conference on separate occasions, he explained that the initiative was to mandate religious leaders to hold him accountable to what he had stated in the document when elected as president.
“I am giving my policy document to you to signify that if voted as president you can at anytime hold me accountable for whatever is in the policy foundation without being victimised. I will welcome your criticisms and corrections wholeheartedly at all times,” he said.
Religious and traditional leaders in Ghana’s democracy
Mr Yeboah said in Ghana’s democracy, religious and traditional leaders were always expected to calm political and ethnic tensions but questioned why they were not allowed to participate directly in governance by being offered appointment.
He said he would, therefore, set up a second upper parliament, which would be an upgrade of the current Council of State which would constitute religious and traditional leaders, senior citizens and the best human resource in all political parties in terms of governance.
He said the second upper parliament would be mandated to review, scrutinise and fine-tune policies and decisions taken by the first upper parliament aimed at addressing the tyranny in parliament, due to a political majority.
That tyranny, he said, was affecting the quality of decisions taken by legislators and therefore, applying some checks and balances had become very crucial to ensure development was not compromised.
Catholic Bishops Conference
Presenting the policy foundation document to the Catholic Bishops Conference in Accra on Monday, Mr Yeboah highlighted some of his policies to the Catholic Bishops.
On education, he said, among other policies, his government would return the management of mission schools to their founders.
“If a religious institution has instituted a school, then they should be allowed to use the virtues of their religion to nurture students,” he said.
However, he was quick to add that mission schools would better nurture and inculcate into students virtues and morals that made them more responsible adults in society, citing himself as a beneficiary of Catholic education.
Mr Yeboah said education without morals would only produce more irresponsible people who would become irresponsible leaders.
Receiving the policy document on behalf of the leadership and members of the Catholic Church, the Secretary General of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Very Right Reverend Father Lazarus Anondee, commended Mr Yeboah for conducting his electioneering decently.
He called on all politicians to emulate Mr Yeboah to enhance tranquillity in the country.
“Although the religious institutions were doing a lot to complement the government’s development efforts, particularly in education, health and agriculture, it was unfortunate that they are not getting the maximum cooperation of the government in their endeavours,” he said.
Methodist Church
Mr Yeboah has also presented the policy document to the presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, Most Reverend Titus Awotwi Pratt.
Most Reverend Awotwi Pratt called on political leaders to desist from inciting tension and strife among their supporters and that of their opponents.
He said in everything they did as part of their electioneering, the interest of Ghana and the country’s peace should be ultimate.
He called on the electorate to vote based on issues and not on political affiliations to ensure that the best was elected.
National Chief Imam
Receiving the policy foundation on behalf of Muslims, the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, said God in his infinite wisdom created the various diversities in society, adding that “we should, therefore, not allow these differences that make society beautiful to divide us but instead let us capitalise on the strengths in our diversities to build our country.”
He said any action that could disturb the peace God had blessed Ghana with was a sign of ingratitude to Him and, therefore, as a country we must passionately protect our divine tranquility.
He lauded all the policies of the independent candidate and prayed for God’s blessings as he had done for all presidential aspirants who had called on him.
