GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
A popular Christian parlance goes
like this, “God works in mysterious ways”. Indeed this is so true. The African
is fanatically religious. Our religiosity is so deep that statements like this
and others such as “It shall be well”, “God is in control” sip deep in our
language and social fibre. Our lives are shaped and directed by these
statements. And we are criticized for
the way we are; our fanaticism for religion, our superstition and belief that
our fate is shaped by God or the gods. And it is rightly so, taking into
evidence the evils that have engulfed the continent. There are wars spotted all
over the continent and poverty has eaten deep into the crevices of our society.
But we are also not a continent of derelict individuals who can buy guns and
start “pumping” bullets into innocent people. Though we fight wars we do it for
the “good” of our countries.
Unlike
most continents our religious nature is the source of our survival. Imagine how
the African will survive without God or a god. Our belief in a deity gives us
hope, inspires us and informs us that though our problems are huge they are not
insurmountable. This sort of thinking might have been the bane of our
mediocrity but it has also strengthened us and developed our survival
instincts.
I
followed a discussion on Harvard Business Review through Linked, a social forum,
which bothers on the reasons why it is difficult to do business in Africa. Have
you wondered why Africans who stayed outside for long find it difficult
starting business here in Africa while those here are successful business
people? As you go from Johannesburg to the slums of Kenya, from Senegal to
Ghana and then to Nigeria, there are successful individual “businesspeople” on
the streets of these countries. Irrespective of the litany of reasons why doing
business in Africa is difficult see the indigenous African businessperson and
hears his success story.
The
death of our beloved president of Ghana, the late Prof. Evans Atta Mills has
generated so much debate. Sometimes when I listened to the debates on TV and
radio and the ones around me which I sometimes joined I am amazed at how the
death of a man can change our perceptions about him. And it has been the debate
as to whether we should say good things about a man whiles he is alive or when
he is dead. Especially from the angle of politics, is it alright for us to say
that our opponent is such an honest and kind person if he is so whiles he is
still alive? In the struggle for power, more so devoid of selflessness, the
possibility is very remote. Even while the president is dead people are not
very happy that he is being considered as a successful president. Some still
believe that irrespective of his sterling public life he was a flop as a politician.
And it is interesting and funny for people to judge the memory of the man that
way. Not now, not tomorrow but posterity
will see this man of blessed memory as one of the strongest and successful
presidents in the history of Ghana.
You know
how people think that Nkrumah did not do much for Ghana. They say with the
amount of money the colonial government left him he should have done more. They
accuse the man of doling money to other African countries leaving his own
people. But Nkrumah is the African of the millennium. He saw long ahead of his
peers and that was his fault. A man who is ahead of his friends and a dreamer
is always treated differently more so harshly. You know the story of Joseph in
the Bible!
I saw
the passion of Nkrumah in Atta Mills. I saw how passionate he spoke when he
talked about education, unemployment and poverty. He felt it was the
opportunity created by Nkrumah that gave the chance for him to attend a
prestigious school like Achimota, why is that not possible today? Well it looked
as if the vision of Nkrumah died with him on the 24th of February,
1966. Since then nothing has improved, things just got worse and worse until
the coup in 1981 which by then things have escalated beyond redemption.
The
first coup happened on a 24th, and the first time we have lost a
president occurred on 24th, July 24th, 2012. Is God
working in mysterious ways again?
While in
the past the political terrain has been choked with the same people who kept on
recycling themselves, it seems we are entering a new dawn of politics where
those firebrand individuals are giving way to more tolerant individuals. The
president’s death is becoming a birth canal for more technocrats who probably
will put the interest of these nations before themselves to be born.
After
February 24th the military took over power and lead us on a road of
ups and downs and turmoil.
July 24th
has become the beginning of when God will intensify his work in mysterious ways
for our country Ghana. After all, our
late president was a firm believer in God and His hand in the affairs of men.
His death may therefore be seen as the divine hand of God working in mysterious
ways. IT IS WELL!
