Address high cost of living - Rt Rev. Dzomeku urges govt

The Moderator of the Global Evangelical Church (GEC), Right Rev. Prosper Samuel Dzomeku, has appealed to the government to address the rising cost of living, to bring relief to the people.

“We are all witnesses of the unprecedented high cost of living we have been experiencing in the country for a successive number of months now,” he said.
The GEC Moderator said this at the 2022 Mini Synod held at the Global Evangelical Church at Madina in Accra.

“Some say it is a global crisis triggered by the Russia-Ukraine war.

Others say the vestiges of the COVID-19 pandemic are also contributory factors.

There seems to be a general acceptance of the notion of a global inflation sparked by external factors outside the control of individual nations,” the Moderator said.

Economic mismanagement

However, Rt Rev. Dzomeku said, “while this may be true, economic mismanagement and profligacy cannot be ruled out in the affairs of certain nations”.

He, therefore, called on the members of the church to venture into food crop cultivation by taking up cassava, maize, rice and vegetables and also tree crop farming on large scale, as a mitigating measure, saying “with these initiatives, we can support our members after harvesting”.

Touching on the recent flooding incidents during the onset of rains Rt Rev. Dzomeku said, “the recent rains have once again exposed our poor planning as a country.

It is very sad that as a country we keep returning to this issue every year”.

“We believe it is time the government took bold and pragmatic steps to deal with the challenges once and for all” and said and called on the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority and other relevant state institutions responsible for planning towns and cities to rise up to the occasion, apply the building rules and regulations to the letter so as to prevent infringement on the laws.

He said if that was done, it would help to stop the perennial floods that had been resulting in the loss of lives and property.

Security

The Moderator commended the National Security for prompting churches to take precautionary measures to protect themselves against imminent terrorist attacks during worship and other public gatherings.

He added his voice to the call for all to be on the alert against all factors that make nations vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Rt Rev. Dzomeku also called for adequate sensitisation of the youth to ensure they were not lured to join radical groups which could pose a danger to the society and the country.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Achobald Letsa, who was the keynote speaker, commended the church for the many social intervention programmes that it had undertaken over the years.

He called on the Church in general to help weed corruption out of the country, saying with over 70 per cent of Ghanaians being Christians, “I hold the view espoused by others that, the Church has a lead role to play in fighting this menace”.

Dr Letsa said corruption derailed all that “our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ stands for and should be a battle for the Church and not only the government.

Writer’s email-rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh