For the past decade, the northern part of Ghana has become synonymous with violent tribal, religious and chieftaincy conflicts. The recent upsurge in violent conflict in the Bawku area in the Upper East Region and the arson in Tamale and Gushegu, otherwise referred to as the “DO ME I DO YOU AFFAIR” are clear cases in point.
Ghana has been reckoned globally as a relatively peaceful nation. But, for the northern part of this country it takes just a shout or little provocation to spark-off chaos and anarchy. This is not to say that other areas in Ghana do not experience violent conflict. But I am particular about the frequency and magnitude of conflicts in and around the three northern regions.
The unresolved menace in Dagbon, the Bimbilla chieftaincy dispute, the Wa chieftaincy dispute, the Buipe chieftaincy conflict, the Konkomba-Bimoba scenario and lately the Tamale and Gushegu arson are clear instances in point. These incidents have put the name and image of the area into question as some now refer to the north as the middle east of Ghana.
Violence and of course armed conflicts have eroded peace, joy and to some extent life out of the area leaving it in a state of perpetual poverty and hopelessness.
In all these cases the class of people actively domineering is the youth. The youth have become subservient to the powers of a bunch of cabals with diabolical intentions whose abiding motivation is political profit, nihilism and mendacity whiles simultaneously denigrating the image of the north.
They forget that all men are created equal and are endowed naturally with certain inalienable rights which include the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness such that we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution. We should therefore engage in politics of hope instead of politics of cynicism.
Some northerners and some Ghanaian politicians always engage in the amorphous news spin that the area is marginalized, thus continuing a tradition of stereotype and bombast, bias and disdain. These are often the warp and woof of media opprobrium and coverage when any issue about the north is the subject .
I am of the conviction that the bane of the northern poverty are the intra-religious and chieftaincy disputes .The area which already experiences erratic rainfall pattern should have seen its youth who constitute the larger proportion of the labour force channel their energies into fruitful ventures that will provide an effective link in pushing for a positive change in the traditional landscape instead of trying to create lawless and a neo-culture of silence in the north.
It is now time we stood up and say no to selfish politicians who often take advantage of the vulnerability of the youth to employ them as serial callers into radio discussions of the polarized political environment to always launch vituperations and scurrilous attacks on their political opponents whom they consider as foes and adversaries.
Often, hosts of radio programmes particularly on the private radio stations due to lack of professionalism, bias or fears allow such individuals to embark on such scurrility without correcting or putting them on track. As noted in political circles, one of the characteristics of a democratic organization is the capacity to manage opposing views through dialogue, compromise and respect for established procedures. So why do we resort to arson and arm conflicts when we should have been learning lessons from Rwanda, Liberia and Sudan.
How do we resolve this multitudinal conflicts that have engulfed the area. First of all, I must sound home the caution that no outsider and no government or state institution can resolve the problems created by us except ourselves because we know the root causes and how weapons are being moved or smuggled into the land. The people training warriors, hiring mercenaries and trafficking weapons and ammunitions are within us; let’s expose them and stop shifting blame on individuals and institutions outside the northern terrain. In fact, the challenge to change the socio-political attitude of the people of the north in particular may be a messianic one.
The socio-political attitudes of a people determine the way they do things. That is what they do, how they do them and when they do them. Are the youth of the area selfless and willing to sacrifice, do we have a development agenda as northerners, can we co-exist as one people with a common destiny. Granted the elderly have failed us, what are we as the young and upcoming doing? I mean the Haruna Iddrisus, Amin Antas, Alhassan Andanis, Mustafa Hamids, Inusah Fuseinis, Thomas Alonsis, Andrews Awunis, Rashid Pelpuos, Ali Nakyeas and the Adam Sules. Not to talk of the Bawumias and the Mahamas. The time to act is now.
As young educated elites of the area, we need to come together and fight a common cause. Politics and chieftaincy tend to divide us, making many to wonder whether we can unite at all. Politics is directly related to the day-to-day socio-economic development of the people and it is time we became united in diversity. For now we look very disorganized and disenchanted. Most of us the youth need to soberly reflect on and examine our lives and contributions to the area’s development. We must realize that no matter the faith we practice, the language we speak, the ethnic group we belong to, the political party we follow, no matter how much money we have, we all have a stake in one another, we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper.
While we as individuals have different past, upon a cursory look we all share the same hopes for the future.
Moreover, it is high time we discarded the rapidly springing up of religious fundamentalism, especially with regards to intra-Islamic controversies. Young preachers who profess to know Islamic theology launch very serious verbal attacks on their perceived Tijania or Ahli Sunna counterparts especially during Ramadan which is suppose to be the Month of Peace. Let’s bear in mind that religious factionalism will take us no where since it is abhorred by Allah Himself and if we do not take our time the very genuine reasons and goals for which we practice religion would elude us on the day of judgement. Why do we rather use religion to hold ourselves back when it should have helped us to progress? We need to ask ourselves many questions and imbibe the culture of tolerance into our social setting.
Finally, in order for us to effectively resolve conflicts in the north, we ought to as youth break the too much dependency mentality that has been with us for long. We should emancipate ourselves from the syndrome of political manipulations and influences. We have to unlock our own independence before that of our society. When we become independent we can then question the status quo and the injustices in our society. We should be able to identify the pro and anti-development attitudes and try to be vigilant of leaders whether within or without the north who try to misuse us for their own gain. We should learn to stand firm on the truth, for according to Winston Churchill the “truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it; but, in the end; there it is.”
Let me sum up by saying that violent armed conflicts have been unnecessary and have led to catastrophic consequences. The economic costs of conflicts are immeasurable and in conflict areas, poverty sucks the energies of people, malnutrition kills children, illiteracy darkens their minds and forecloses their future. We all as northerners must therefore ponder over the issues raised in this feature and endeavour to take part in effective conflict prevention; management and resolution for the rest of the country may not wait for us while we struggle amidst conflicts.
As we approach December, 2008 General Elections, we as northerners and Ghanaians in general are being called upon to reaffirm our values and commitments to the legacy of our fore bearers who fought through thick and thin for our independence and the promises of generations yet unborn.
Muhammed A. Yakubu,Youth Development Advocate,
Saturday, May 2, 2009
CAN POLITICS CURE OUR WOES. By Mustapha Abdul Hamid Bawre
This week has been perhaps the saddest week for me in my entire political life. At the same time, it has set me wondering and asking myself a few genuine questions:1. Can politics and politicians cure the ills of our society?2. Are we as Ghanaians genuinely interested in the truth or are we all hypocrites?3. Can we ever make our leaders genuinely accountable to the wishes and aspirations of the people?4. Is there too much politics in Ghana?5. Can really honest people engage in politics?
I am sure these are questions that all of us have been asking ourselves. All of us have our own answers to these questions. But I guess it is high time we asked these questions openly, so that we can have a national conversation that inures to the benefit of everybody and ultimately the nation. Politics is generally translated as statecraft. In other words, politics is the art of managing a state. If politics is the art of managing a state, then the question arises as to whether political values ought to be truthful and honest or insincere and hypocritical.
When we were growing, we were told that “politics is a dirty game”. What it means is that politics and for that matter politicians are a bunch of dishonest and crooked individuals whose values are twisted. If politics is the art of managing a state and the management process and the managers are a bunch of crooked, dishonest people with twisted values, then how does politics advance the course of a nation?
Some answer that “it is not politics that is dirty, but dirty people make it dirty”. Well I don’t know which comes first. Whether it is politics itself that is dirty that then dirtied its players or it is the players who are dirty and who made it dirty. It is the chicken and egg situation. And the argument will rage till perhaps the end of time.
But whether it is politics that makes its players dirty or it is the players that make politics dirty, the question still remains whether indeed politics can cure the ills of society. According to Aristotle, well being consists of ends and the means to achieving those ends. Therefore for men to achieve their ends, their means and ends must always agree. So when men set for themselves good ends but make a wrong choice of the means towards attaining those ends, the ends will not be achieved.
And to my mind, this is perhaps the principal reason why we have been wallowing in this quagmire for such a long time. We have decided as a nation that we want prosperity for ourselves and therefore for the nation. This is perhaps the ultimate aim of all nations, for as Aristotle states, “the happiness of the individual members of a state is the happiness of the state”.
But the problem is that while our end is good, the means that we have chosen towards the realisation of that end is bad: dirty politics. What is worse is that we have accepted the dirty politics as the true politics. And we actually glorify it. We have decided as a nation that the truth hurts and therefore we should avoid as much pain as possible by hiding the truth and living the lie.
I have come under intense heat from politicians of the NPP and especially admirers of former President Kufuor because I stated that in my view he made certain judgments which in my view turned out wrong in spite of his huge success as President. In other words, as NPP people we should insist all the time that our leaders are incapable of error or wrong judgment.
And as NDC people we should insist that leaders of the NDC are incapable of wrong doing. In other words, we should raise our political leaders to sainthood. While I may be compelled never ever to openly reveal wrong in the NPP, I am hard pressed at attributing such divine qualities to human beings, more so when those human beings are politicians.
Indeed I find it absolutely contradictory, that we say that politics is dirty, yet when people reveal the dirt, we cry foul. To my mind we are clear to ourselves as a nation where we want to go, but I guess it will take a while to achieve our collective aim if we decide that politicians be raised to sainthood.
Presidents are entrusted with literally the destiny of the people over whom they preside. Today Atta Mills is President. He is clothed, fed and transported around with our money. Not just that, but he literally has power to do with our money what he wants to do with it. When he has finished his four year mandate, we should not have the right to ask in spite of whatever successes he may chalk, what other decisions he took which were not exactly beneficial to us?
Or must the asking necessarily be done only by NPP people? Must NDC people who ask these questions be termed enemies of their party? Some body told me that indeed every body recognises that my assertions were correct and legitimate. But the reason people are outraged is that as an NPP person, the impact is greater. According to him we should leave the wrong side of Kufuor’s rule to the NDC so that we can dismiss it.
In the same vein, the evils that Jerry did should be left to people like us, so that it will be easy for the NDC to dismiss what we say as the ranting of Jerry’s opponents. So what we are literally saying as a nation is that there should never be a genuine attempt at soul searching. There is virtually an agreement amongst us that criticism should not be a serious matter. We should criticise just for the sake of opposing others.
“An unexamined life” they say “is not worth living”. And who is better placed to examine our lives for us except ourselves? Others will argue that yes, we can examine the ills of our governments but we should do so secretly. In other words, as they say “let us not wash our dirty linen in public”. But the linen (in this case the nation) is public linen. And public linen can only be washed in public.
A President presiding over a nation can hardly be reduced to a private matter in my view. Indeed whether he was NDC or NPP he was virtually a President for all of us as indeed Atta Mills says he will be as if he has a choice anyway. So why people will think that one half of the nation should concentrate only on trumpeting the good of the President (in this case his party people) and the other half should concentrate on trumpeting his ills (in this case his opponents) beats my imagination.
I am hard pressed at accepting this rather ridiculous arrangement.
While politicians have this rather ridiculous arrangement amongst themselves and while it retards the forward movement of the nation, the other segment who say they are not politicians stand aloof. Indeed they claim that it is the business of politicians and not theirs.
At the end of the day however, it affects their working conditions, their salaries, their productivity and ultimately their happiness and by extension, the happiness of the nation.
That is the reason Aristotle said that human beings are by nature political. “From these things it is evident then, that the city belongs among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.
He who is without a city through nature rather than chance is either a mean sort or superior to man; he is without clan, without law, without hearth”. (Aristotle’s Politics, Page 37).
Therefore we have all turned ourselves into hypocrites and also ostriches, preferring to bury our heads in the sand and pretending that all is well. This way we can never make our leaders accountable for anything.
May be I am trying to be correct as they say. May be correctness is not workable after all. May be I am being idealistic. May be there are no ideal situations. May be I am being overly patriotic. May be patriotism does not pay. Whatever it is I think that we need to generate a debate that will set us rethinking our political values.
I have travelled around quite a bit. I think that there is too much politics in Ghana. The airwaves are dominated by too much politicking. While I thought that this political awareness will put our politicians on their toes, rather it provides for their continued comfort. Every morning when I hear the voice of “Dr. Asemfofro” or “Y2K” I know immediately what kind of argument they are going to put forth.
That kind of discourse does not generate genuine national debate. Frankly the phenomenon of serial calling does not convince any body of the respective positions of these serial callers. I am not against serial calling. I love their voices to the extent that they defend their party positions. But how many genuine fence sitters get convinced by these positions? I dare say none.
While too much politics may therefore be a measure of variety of opinion, which of course is an integral part of democracy, it has the tendency to stifle genuine debate and genuine national discourse.
For now, a great number of honest and intelligent people shudder to engage in politics because of the insincerity of politicking. But it is the inaction of those who should have acted that has afforded the opportunity for evil to prevail.
But have I attempted an answer to any of the questions with which I set out to write this article? No! Indeed I am more confused than I started.
I am sure these are questions that all of us have been asking ourselves. All of us have our own answers to these questions. But I guess it is high time we asked these questions openly, so that we can have a national conversation that inures to the benefit of everybody and ultimately the nation. Politics is generally translated as statecraft. In other words, politics is the art of managing a state. If politics is the art of managing a state, then the question arises as to whether political values ought to be truthful and honest or insincere and hypocritical.
When we were growing, we were told that “politics is a dirty game”. What it means is that politics and for that matter politicians are a bunch of dishonest and crooked individuals whose values are twisted. If politics is the art of managing a state and the management process and the managers are a bunch of crooked, dishonest people with twisted values, then how does politics advance the course of a nation?
Some answer that “it is not politics that is dirty, but dirty people make it dirty”. Well I don’t know which comes first. Whether it is politics itself that is dirty that then dirtied its players or it is the players who are dirty and who made it dirty. It is the chicken and egg situation. And the argument will rage till perhaps the end of time.
But whether it is politics that makes its players dirty or it is the players that make politics dirty, the question still remains whether indeed politics can cure the ills of society. According to Aristotle, well being consists of ends and the means to achieving those ends. Therefore for men to achieve their ends, their means and ends must always agree. So when men set for themselves good ends but make a wrong choice of the means towards attaining those ends, the ends will not be achieved.
And to my mind, this is perhaps the principal reason why we have been wallowing in this quagmire for such a long time. We have decided as a nation that we want prosperity for ourselves and therefore for the nation. This is perhaps the ultimate aim of all nations, for as Aristotle states, “the happiness of the individual members of a state is the happiness of the state”.
But the problem is that while our end is good, the means that we have chosen towards the realisation of that end is bad: dirty politics. What is worse is that we have accepted the dirty politics as the true politics. And we actually glorify it. We have decided as a nation that the truth hurts and therefore we should avoid as much pain as possible by hiding the truth and living the lie.
I have come under intense heat from politicians of the NPP and especially admirers of former President Kufuor because I stated that in my view he made certain judgments which in my view turned out wrong in spite of his huge success as President. In other words, as NPP people we should insist all the time that our leaders are incapable of error or wrong judgment.
And as NDC people we should insist that leaders of the NDC are incapable of wrong doing. In other words, we should raise our political leaders to sainthood. While I may be compelled never ever to openly reveal wrong in the NPP, I am hard pressed at attributing such divine qualities to human beings, more so when those human beings are politicians.
Indeed I find it absolutely contradictory, that we say that politics is dirty, yet when people reveal the dirt, we cry foul. To my mind we are clear to ourselves as a nation where we want to go, but I guess it will take a while to achieve our collective aim if we decide that politicians be raised to sainthood.
Presidents are entrusted with literally the destiny of the people over whom they preside. Today Atta Mills is President. He is clothed, fed and transported around with our money. Not just that, but he literally has power to do with our money what he wants to do with it. When he has finished his four year mandate, we should not have the right to ask in spite of whatever successes he may chalk, what other decisions he took which were not exactly beneficial to us?
Or must the asking necessarily be done only by NPP people? Must NDC people who ask these questions be termed enemies of their party? Some body told me that indeed every body recognises that my assertions were correct and legitimate. But the reason people are outraged is that as an NPP person, the impact is greater. According to him we should leave the wrong side of Kufuor’s rule to the NDC so that we can dismiss it.
In the same vein, the evils that Jerry did should be left to people like us, so that it will be easy for the NDC to dismiss what we say as the ranting of Jerry’s opponents. So what we are literally saying as a nation is that there should never be a genuine attempt at soul searching. There is virtually an agreement amongst us that criticism should not be a serious matter. We should criticise just for the sake of opposing others.
“An unexamined life” they say “is not worth living”. And who is better placed to examine our lives for us except ourselves? Others will argue that yes, we can examine the ills of our governments but we should do so secretly. In other words, as they say “let us not wash our dirty linen in public”. But the linen (in this case the nation) is public linen. And public linen can only be washed in public.
A President presiding over a nation can hardly be reduced to a private matter in my view. Indeed whether he was NDC or NPP he was virtually a President for all of us as indeed Atta Mills says he will be as if he has a choice anyway. So why people will think that one half of the nation should concentrate only on trumpeting the good of the President (in this case his party people) and the other half should concentrate on trumpeting his ills (in this case his opponents) beats my imagination.
I am hard pressed at accepting this rather ridiculous arrangement.
While politicians have this rather ridiculous arrangement amongst themselves and while it retards the forward movement of the nation, the other segment who say they are not politicians stand aloof. Indeed they claim that it is the business of politicians and not theirs.
At the end of the day however, it affects their working conditions, their salaries, their productivity and ultimately their happiness and by extension, the happiness of the nation.
That is the reason Aristotle said that human beings are by nature political. “From these things it is evident then, that the city belongs among the things that exist by nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.
He who is without a city through nature rather than chance is either a mean sort or superior to man; he is without clan, without law, without hearth”. (Aristotle’s Politics, Page 37).
Therefore we have all turned ourselves into hypocrites and also ostriches, preferring to bury our heads in the sand and pretending that all is well. This way we can never make our leaders accountable for anything.
May be I am trying to be correct as they say. May be correctness is not workable after all. May be I am being idealistic. May be there are no ideal situations. May be I am being overly patriotic. May be patriotism does not pay. Whatever it is I think that we need to generate a debate that will set us rethinking our political values.
I have travelled around quite a bit. I think that there is too much politics in Ghana. The airwaves are dominated by too much politicking. While I thought that this political awareness will put our politicians on their toes, rather it provides for their continued comfort. Every morning when I hear the voice of “Dr. Asemfofro” or “Y2K” I know immediately what kind of argument they are going to put forth.
That kind of discourse does not generate genuine national debate. Frankly the phenomenon of serial calling does not convince any body of the respective positions of these serial callers. I am not against serial calling. I love their voices to the extent that they defend their party positions. But how many genuine fence sitters get convinced by these positions? I dare say none.
While too much politics may therefore be a measure of variety of opinion, which of course is an integral part of democracy, it has the tendency to stifle genuine debate and genuine national discourse.
For now, a great number of honest and intelligent people shudder to engage in politics because of the insincerity of politicking. But it is the inaction of those who should have acted that has afforded the opportunity for evil to prevail.
But have I attempted an answer to any of the questions with which I set out to write this article? No! Indeed I am more confused than I started.
BETWEEN GOD AND THE DEVIL:WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT? By Mustapha Abdul Hamid Bawre
This article has been occasioned by the tragic death of the daughters of Rev. Eastwood Anaba. Somewhere during the Easter, two daughters of Rev. Anaba perished on the Tamale-Bolga road when they were travelling to Bolga to attend the Easter Convention of their father’s church, the Fountain Gate Chapel.
One of the tyres of the vehicle burst and the vehicle skidded off the road, somersaulting several times and killing six out of the seven people on board. It was sad news for not only the Christian community, but the entire Ghanaian population.
Indeed I had been wondering why this should happen to a “man of God”. But as a Muslim I immediately consoled myself with the Qur’anic injunction that states that God tests his servants with all sorts of calamities in order to judge the extent of their faith or belief.
“And we will try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives, and fruits; but give glad tidings to the patient; who when a misfortune overtakes them, say, ‘surely to Allah we belong and to him shall we return’; It is these on whom are blessings from their lord and mercy, and it is these who are rightly guided”. (Q: 2:155-157).
I therefore consoled myself with the assurance that Rev. Anaba being a man of God will better appreciate these matters and therefore will take this misfortune in his stride and move on with the business of spreading God’s word.
I was however taken aback when I heard during the 10:am news on Joy FM last Friday that Rev. Anaba on commenting on the death of his daughters, had said that he will not allow the devil to derail his God-given mandate.
I hope my interpretation is correct. But my understanding of his statement is that somehow, the devil is responsible for the death of his daughters with the sole aim of distracting him from his work as a man of God.
This immediately brought to mind, a question that a friend of mine posed to me several years ago when we were teaching at the Siddique Secondary School in Agona Nyarkrom. “If you lose one thousand dollars say in the market and you return from town only to find the same amount of money in the same denominations in which you lost them, what will be your reaction?”
I said that I will pick up the money and praise God for restoring my money to me. But he said he will refuse to pick up the money because it will be the work of the devil. According to him, it is not naturally possible to lose money only to return home to find the money by your door step. He won’t pick the money and he will seek protection of God from the accursed devil.
Somehow I thought his reasoning was valid even though I did not personally share that view. But all of this re-echoes the question: between God and the Devil: Who is responsible for what? When do we determine that an act is an act of God and when do we determine that an act is an act of the devil?
As a Muslim my natural inclination was to turn to the Qur’an to find answers. But the more I read the Qur’an the more confused I became. I guess this question is more philosophical than it is religious.
I guess both Christians and Muslims believe in some amount of pre-destination or destiny as some will put it. If that is the case, then the matter of the death of Rev Anaba’s children will be a straight forward verdict. “Surely to God we belong and to him we shall return”. But the intervention of the devil in human affairs certainly complicates these matters. Some times we are genuinely confused as to whether indeed an act is an act of God or an act of the devil.
The Qur’an states that God intervenes in our lives only for good. It is the devil that does mischief. “Satan threatens you with poverty and enjoins upon you what is foul, whereas Allah promises you forgiveness from himself and bounty. And Allah is bountiful, all-knowing”. (Q: 2: 268) Elsewhere it states: “Whatever of good comes to thee it is from Allah; and whatever of evil befalls thee is from thyself…” (Q: 4:79)
To the extent that God is good, Rev. Anaba will be right in determining that God will not intervene so negatively in his life more so during Easter which is the time when Jesus died and resurrected to save our lives. Indeed Jesus died so that “we may live life and live it abundantly”. The business of the devil is to destroy, maim and steal. That ghastly accident could therefore not have been the work of God. Rev. Anaba may therefore be right on that score.
But the question still arises as to whether the devil has control over life and death. Could the devil have determined that the daughters of Rev. Anaba should die if God wished the contrary? These are matters that cannot be answered easily. There are people who believe that if God is perfectly loving, God must wish to abolish all evil; and if God is all-powerful, God must be able to abolish all evil.
But evil exists; therefore God cannot be both omnipotent and perfectly loving.
Saint Augustine responds to the problem of evil with the proposition that evil is the going wrong of something that is inherently good. According to Augustine, the universe is good. That is to say, it is the creation of a good God for a good purpose. Augustine argues that evil, whether it be an evil will, an instance of pain or some disorder or decay in nature, has therefore not been set there by God but represents the going wrong of something that is inherently good.
He points to blindness as an example.
Blindness according to him is not a “thing”. The only thing involved is the eye, which is in itself good; the evil of blindness consists of the lack of a proper functioning of the eye. Generalising the principle, Augustine holds that evil always consists of the malfunctioning of something that is in itself good.
But the great German theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) counters Augustine’s arguments. According to him, a flawless creation would never go wrong and that if the creation does in fact go wrong, the ultimate responsibility for this must be with its creator: “for this is where the buck stops”!
In the meantime I want to relate the arguments of Augustine and Schleiermacher to the incidence of the death of Rev. Anaba’s children. There was a vehicle involved. The invention of vehicles is good in itself. The accident that occurred was therefore the going wrong of something that is inherently good.
Schleiermacher on the other hand will argue that God in his goodness could and should have prevented the tyre from bursting. The fact that God did not prevent the accident from happening shows that he is not an entirely good God.
Another school of thought is that God’s creation was not meant to be perfect from the start as Augustine argues. According to this argument, we were first made into the image of God. And through the vicissitudes of life, we are supposed to grow into the likeness of God. In other words what we perceive as the imperfections of life, such as sickness and death are supposed to mould us and gradually shape us into the likeness of God.
But we still have not answered the question as to who is responsible for what; God or the devil? Most of the time when we read stories in the news papers about people who have either killed or raped, we read that for most of them in their statements to the police, they say that what they did was the work of the devil.
It seems to me that human beings have a conspiracy against the devil just as the devil has a conspiracy against us. We have somehow virtually agreed amongst ourselves that any misfortune that will befall us, we shall attribute it to the devil. But does this not go against our Christian and Muslim beliefs that everything is ultimately God’s doing? According to Muslim belief, there are six articles of faith to which every Muslim should subscribe.
One of this is to believe in destiny, which means that we should believe that whatever happens to us, it is from Allah both the good and the bad thereof.
In spite of my Muslim belief, I am also a firm believer in the law of karma. The law of karma basically states that for every cause there is an effect. In other words there is an extent to which we are the crafters of our own destiny. What we sow is what we reap. I guess that is what Allah refers to when he states that whatever misfortune befalls us, it is from ourselves. By our actions, we trigger certain reactions which have certain results.
One of my friends argues that perhaps there will never be a conclusion to the argument about acts being the work of God or the devil. His solution is that God and the devil are one and the same person. They are two sides of the same coin. According to him, we should be free to ascribe happenings in our lives to either God or the devil, depending on the circumstances of the experience and how we feel.
In that sense I guess Rev. Anaba cannot just bring himself to accept the fact that as a person who has devoted himself to the service of God, that God will take the lives of two of his daughters at the same time. It certainly cannot be God. But my response is that the judgments of heaven are often times reversed to those of earth.
Even though this is a philosophical question that defies easy answers, I will attempt to summarise my thoughts on the question, “between God and the devil: who is responsible for what?
We are entirely free as human beings to decide the course of our destiny by the choices that we make in life. But we cannot always do with life what we want to do with it. Things will sometimes go wrong in spite of our best efforts. Sometimes they are God’s trials and a way of testing our faith. For the righteous servants of God, the devil has no power of influence.
In all things therefore, let us give thanks and praises; for the good, the bad and the ugly all contribute to shape our lives for the better. My condolences to Rev. Anaba and his family. Thanks also to all my friends who hoped for my wife’s recovery. Insha Allah all is well now.
One of the tyres of the vehicle burst and the vehicle skidded off the road, somersaulting several times and killing six out of the seven people on board. It was sad news for not only the Christian community, but the entire Ghanaian population.
Indeed I had been wondering why this should happen to a “man of God”. But as a Muslim I immediately consoled myself with the Qur’anic injunction that states that God tests his servants with all sorts of calamities in order to judge the extent of their faith or belief.
“And we will try you with something of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth and lives, and fruits; but give glad tidings to the patient; who when a misfortune overtakes them, say, ‘surely to Allah we belong and to him shall we return’; It is these on whom are blessings from their lord and mercy, and it is these who are rightly guided”. (Q: 2:155-157).
I therefore consoled myself with the assurance that Rev. Anaba being a man of God will better appreciate these matters and therefore will take this misfortune in his stride and move on with the business of spreading God’s word.
I was however taken aback when I heard during the 10:am news on Joy FM last Friday that Rev. Anaba on commenting on the death of his daughters, had said that he will not allow the devil to derail his God-given mandate.
I hope my interpretation is correct. But my understanding of his statement is that somehow, the devil is responsible for the death of his daughters with the sole aim of distracting him from his work as a man of God.
This immediately brought to mind, a question that a friend of mine posed to me several years ago when we were teaching at the Siddique Secondary School in Agona Nyarkrom. “If you lose one thousand dollars say in the market and you return from town only to find the same amount of money in the same denominations in which you lost them, what will be your reaction?”
I said that I will pick up the money and praise God for restoring my money to me. But he said he will refuse to pick up the money because it will be the work of the devil. According to him, it is not naturally possible to lose money only to return home to find the money by your door step. He won’t pick the money and he will seek protection of God from the accursed devil.
Somehow I thought his reasoning was valid even though I did not personally share that view. But all of this re-echoes the question: between God and the Devil: Who is responsible for what? When do we determine that an act is an act of God and when do we determine that an act is an act of the devil?
As a Muslim my natural inclination was to turn to the Qur’an to find answers. But the more I read the Qur’an the more confused I became. I guess this question is more philosophical than it is religious.
I guess both Christians and Muslims believe in some amount of pre-destination or destiny as some will put it. If that is the case, then the matter of the death of Rev Anaba’s children will be a straight forward verdict. “Surely to God we belong and to him we shall return”. But the intervention of the devil in human affairs certainly complicates these matters. Some times we are genuinely confused as to whether indeed an act is an act of God or an act of the devil.
The Qur’an states that God intervenes in our lives only for good. It is the devil that does mischief. “Satan threatens you with poverty and enjoins upon you what is foul, whereas Allah promises you forgiveness from himself and bounty. And Allah is bountiful, all-knowing”. (Q: 2: 268) Elsewhere it states: “Whatever of good comes to thee it is from Allah; and whatever of evil befalls thee is from thyself…” (Q: 4:79)
To the extent that God is good, Rev. Anaba will be right in determining that God will not intervene so negatively in his life more so during Easter which is the time when Jesus died and resurrected to save our lives. Indeed Jesus died so that “we may live life and live it abundantly”. The business of the devil is to destroy, maim and steal. That ghastly accident could therefore not have been the work of God. Rev. Anaba may therefore be right on that score.
But the question still arises as to whether the devil has control over life and death. Could the devil have determined that the daughters of Rev. Anaba should die if God wished the contrary? These are matters that cannot be answered easily. There are people who believe that if God is perfectly loving, God must wish to abolish all evil; and if God is all-powerful, God must be able to abolish all evil.
But evil exists; therefore God cannot be both omnipotent and perfectly loving.
Saint Augustine responds to the problem of evil with the proposition that evil is the going wrong of something that is inherently good. According to Augustine, the universe is good. That is to say, it is the creation of a good God for a good purpose. Augustine argues that evil, whether it be an evil will, an instance of pain or some disorder or decay in nature, has therefore not been set there by God but represents the going wrong of something that is inherently good.
He points to blindness as an example.
Blindness according to him is not a “thing”. The only thing involved is the eye, which is in itself good; the evil of blindness consists of the lack of a proper functioning of the eye. Generalising the principle, Augustine holds that evil always consists of the malfunctioning of something that is in itself good.
But the great German theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) counters Augustine’s arguments. According to him, a flawless creation would never go wrong and that if the creation does in fact go wrong, the ultimate responsibility for this must be with its creator: “for this is where the buck stops”!
In the meantime I want to relate the arguments of Augustine and Schleiermacher to the incidence of the death of Rev. Anaba’s children. There was a vehicle involved. The invention of vehicles is good in itself. The accident that occurred was therefore the going wrong of something that is inherently good.
Schleiermacher on the other hand will argue that God in his goodness could and should have prevented the tyre from bursting. The fact that God did not prevent the accident from happening shows that he is not an entirely good God.
Another school of thought is that God’s creation was not meant to be perfect from the start as Augustine argues. According to this argument, we were first made into the image of God. And through the vicissitudes of life, we are supposed to grow into the likeness of God. In other words what we perceive as the imperfections of life, such as sickness and death are supposed to mould us and gradually shape us into the likeness of God.
But we still have not answered the question as to who is responsible for what; God or the devil? Most of the time when we read stories in the news papers about people who have either killed or raped, we read that for most of them in their statements to the police, they say that what they did was the work of the devil.
It seems to me that human beings have a conspiracy against the devil just as the devil has a conspiracy against us. We have somehow virtually agreed amongst ourselves that any misfortune that will befall us, we shall attribute it to the devil. But does this not go against our Christian and Muslim beliefs that everything is ultimately God’s doing? According to Muslim belief, there are six articles of faith to which every Muslim should subscribe.
One of this is to believe in destiny, which means that we should believe that whatever happens to us, it is from Allah both the good and the bad thereof.
In spite of my Muslim belief, I am also a firm believer in the law of karma. The law of karma basically states that for every cause there is an effect. In other words there is an extent to which we are the crafters of our own destiny. What we sow is what we reap. I guess that is what Allah refers to when he states that whatever misfortune befalls us, it is from ourselves. By our actions, we trigger certain reactions which have certain results.
One of my friends argues that perhaps there will never be a conclusion to the argument about acts being the work of God or the devil. His solution is that God and the devil are one and the same person. They are two sides of the same coin. According to him, we should be free to ascribe happenings in our lives to either God or the devil, depending on the circumstances of the experience and how we feel.
In that sense I guess Rev. Anaba cannot just bring himself to accept the fact that as a person who has devoted himself to the service of God, that God will take the lives of two of his daughters at the same time. It certainly cannot be God. But my response is that the judgments of heaven are often times reversed to those of earth.
Even though this is a philosophical question that defies easy answers, I will attempt to summarise my thoughts on the question, “between God and the devil: who is responsible for what?
We are entirely free as human beings to decide the course of our destiny by the choices that we make in life. But we cannot always do with life what we want to do with it. Things will sometimes go wrong in spite of our best efforts. Sometimes they are God’s trials and a way of testing our faith. For the righteous servants of God, the devil has no power of influence.
In all things therefore, let us give thanks and praises; for the good, the bad and the ugly all contribute to shape our lives for the better. My condolences to Rev. Anaba and his family. Thanks also to all my friends who hoped for my wife’s recovery. Insha Allah all is well now.
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