Use 2008 elections to set standards — Annor-Yeboah

The General Overseer of the Christian Praise International Church (CIPC), Rev. Dr Augustine Annor-Yeboah, has advised politicians to use the 2008 elections as a springboard to attain the political standards prevailing in the developed world and not to compare the country to the countries in political turmoil.
He said Ghana had had its fair share of political turmoil and instability some time back, and that with that experience, Ghanaians would never go back to such dark days of instability.
Rev. Annor-Yeboah gave the advice when he launched the “The New Ghanaian”, a magazine in Accra. The occasion also marked the 10th anniversary celebration of the Intra-West African Communications Limited, publishers of the magazine.
“Since independence, we have moved as a country from the era of bomb throwing to one party state, coups and counter coups, and revolutions, but have now settled on a multi-party democracy,” he said.
He said God had ordained Ghana to flourish in peace and stability, and that even “if politicians try to derail her, because there are a lot of servants of the living Christ in the country, it will all backfire”.
The general overseer of the CIPC urged politicians to see themselves first as Ghanaians, even before considering their political affiliations or ethnic groupings.
He said Ghanaians must concentrate on issues that unite and move the country forward and play down on petty issues that retarded the progress so far made.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Ms Joyce Aryee, for her part, called on Ghanaians to be circumspect in their jubilation when initial results of the elections started coming through.
This, she said, was because in most cases, people who started jubilation ended up to be shocked and resorted to all kinds of speculations when the subsequent results were not in their favour.
She also appealed to Ghanaians to, at all times, put the interest of the nation first and support any political party that would win the elections to develop the country, adding that “may the best political party win, and when that party wins, we should all give it our support”.
Ms Joyce Aryee said although Ghana was not immuned from having political instability, Ghanaians should not be behaving as if the country was on the verge of unsteadiness because of the 2008 elections, after all, this is not the first election Ghana would be having.
She said although one of the cardinal principles of multi-party democracy was freedom of the media, it did not licence the media to be tyrannical in the execution of its duties.
She said the media must use its power of freedom in a constructive and responsible manner, instead of using it to abuse and malign some sections of the society, “because we did not want tyranny, that is why we have opted for democracy”.