20-12-2011
Narration: A Catholic Priest at the Garu-Tempane Parish, Rev. Fr. Gabriel Attidor, has advised Leaders of the various political parties to be constructive in their pronouncements and exercise high level of decorum on the airwaves in order not to inflame passion. He said as the country prepares towards the 2012 elections, it behoves politicians to deal with pertinent issues of public interest and not launch verbal attack on personalities and groups. Such unfavourable pronouncements, he noted, has the capacity of degenerating into violence conflict when not guided. Rev. Fr Atidoo gave the advice at the maiden edition of a Festival of a Night of Nine Lessons and Carols at Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region. Isaac Asare was there for Radio Ghana.
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The region’s maiden edition of the Festival of a Night of Nine Lessons organized by the Christian Council of Churches was celebrated under the theme: “Promoting Peace and Reconciliation in the 2012 General Elections through Carol Music”. It was marked with spectacular interdenominational song ministration by the various choir groups in the region. Touching on the theme, the Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, Edward Ayagle said government is committed to ensuring a free, fair and transparent election next year , hence the need for religious bodies to partner government in achieving its set objective. He said churches can play a leading role in maintaining the current peaceful atmosphere being enjoyed by Ghanaians and encouraged them to continue to pray for peace ahead of the 2012 elections. Citizens, he observed also owe it a duty of respecting the laws of the land by living up to their civic responsibilities. Mr. Ayagle prayed for peaceful elections and advised the public to work towards its realization devoid of rancour and foul comments among other negativities that have the potential of destroying the country enviable democratic dispensation. For his part, Rev. Fr. Atidoo said the essence of organizing the programme was to portray the essence of peace through music. He said peace cannot be enjoyed on a silver platter because successive governments have worked hard by handing over peacefully to their opponents in a peaceful manner; a practice which he noted had been absent is most parts of the world, particularly, developing countries. He said Ghana through its democratic experiences has been touted as the beacon of democracy, making us an envy of many nations. This remarkable achievement should not be glossed over but rather be maintained to promote peace and development. Rev. Fr Atidoo however cautioned politicians and the media to be circumspect in their utterances so as not to spark of violent ahead of the forthcoming general elections. On the essence of Christmas, Rev Fr Atidoo lamented that people all over the world especially the youth have lost touch on the relevance of Christmas, thus indulging in activities such as fornication, drinking spree, and other unruly behaviours including drunk driving among other ungodly acts. He explained that Christmas is not in any way connected to revenge, retaliation, sex and drunkenness but rather a time for repentance, peace, love, reconciliation, and spiritual renewal. He blamed the media for the wrong signals and interpretations of Christmas and called on them to preach the moral aspect of Christmas to help change the negative connotations attached to the yearly festivity. Rev Fr. Atidoo advised Christians to live in moderation and use the occasion to honour the birth of Christ as the savior of mankind. He said on such occasions, Christians needed to remind themselves to live decent live just as Christ entreated us to do. Mr. John–Paul Opare, a choir master of St. Cecilia choir described the attendance as encouraging and promise the public of a more interesting show in the coming year. He used the opportunity to charge politicians to work towards ensuring an incident free election next year.
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