Media silent over the killing of 7 people in Doba-Kandiga – Archbishop Naameh

Archbishop Philip Naameh, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, has lamented over the killings of seven persons in the impasse between the people of Doba and Kandiga in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region.

He noted that the bloodshed in Doba-Kandiga took place last week, but it was not reported in the media.

Archbishop Naameh stated this in his sermon at Parliament’s 2021 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the forecourt of Parliament House in Accra under the patronage of Speaker Alban Bagbin.

The service was attended by MPs, members of the Judiciary, ministers of state, members of the diplomatic community, leading figures of political parties and the academia.

Archbishop Naameh said, “If you go round the whole country, there are conflicts all over. Some are not even reported, I want to mention Doba-Kandiga; last week there was bloodshed there but the media is restrictively reporting some of these things, seven people have died and very little is heard about that,” he said.

“One of the reasons I was told is that many of you (the MPs) are owning radio stations and you prescribe what should be published and whatnot. This is not in the service of the common good of the nation.”

The Archbishop in his advice to the MPs, said, “You know many of us can live till our grave, by not consciously deciding what is worth doing according to our dignity but we live our lives reacting, only reacting to stimuli from outside.”

“But what do we as conscious human beings with the rich set of values because of our religious affiliations – whether we are Moslems or traditional believers or Christians, we have a rich set of values and therefore, if we are only reacting to stimuli from outside, we are not doing ourselves any good because we fill our personality with a lot of toxics which do not enable us to operate as peacemakers.”

He urged Ghanaians to constantly on daily basis detoxify the things in their personalities that do not promote peace.

“What I mean by this is that all the things which we store from the external stimuli, which tells us that as for this person or group of persons, I cannot forgive. This person has hurt me so much that I don’t think I can ever trust him again. These are negative self-talk. We need to replace them with positive self-talk. And it is this positive self-talk that would transform our whole personality and make us amenable to making peace in all our relationships.”

Archbishop Naameh noted that one could not go through life without anybody hurting him or wounding him in one way or the other; saying “but what do we make of that? We have the power, which God has given to us to say that he has hurt me but as a religious person I will not hurt him.”

“….You may be from this ethnic group which has for many years being at loggerhead with another ethnic group but that is not your personal life. Don’t inherit that and let it prevent you from being an apostle of peace.”

He encouraged Ghanaians to detoxify themselves from all negativity and ask God for the strength and courage of transformation to enable them to see each other as one family playing different roles.

The Archbishop said in every government, the opposition was playing a very important role towards the complement of a good democracy.

“But you (the MPs) know it and that is why I am saying that you are very civil with each other, even very friendly with each other while give us who are out there a different image about yourselves,” he said.

“So continue to embark on a path of self-transformation that will enable you to see the opposition and government as two sides of very important sections of a one House and the need to collaborate with one another when the opportunity offers itself.”

Mr Bagbin who read the Ninth Lesson from the Bible, in a brief remark prior to the reading, noted that “God is good. All the time. What God cannot do does not exist.”

Source: GNA