Who Robbed the Market Women?

By Selikem Donkor

In historical books, colonialism and slavery were the main and the greatest way by which the African was exploited by the Europeans and the Arabs. At the end of the 20^th century colonialism and slavery left our lands and now freedom was ours, as we hoped for a better tomorrow yet tomorrow is here but we are worse than before. Who made the people worse, who robbed them of their daily bread? Is it the white man who came and left or our own whodisguisedly deceives us?
 

In the bushes of Achimota forest, to the  National Theatre of our dear nation, mind blowing and ear calling tunes sound to the hearing of our ears and one may disagree not, that these tunes are from the various churches that surround us and from the lips of our great gospel musicians. Each day in every week, television channels are filled with healing programs of men, who in their own words claim to be men of God but only thou who creates knows the heart of its creatures.  Matthew 7:1 reads,’judge not for ye will be judged’ and this scripture prevents us not from judging but enlightens us that as we judge so shall we be judged. On this scripture I stand to analyze the deeds of the church and the filth in our politics.

In the name of Christ and by the words in the bible, men who preach the gospel become rich and wealthy as owners of the currency creating machine. It’s possible for a man of God to own a house and possibly own a car if not cars, but it’s inversely impossible for a man of God who preaches only the gospel to own private jets, mansions, luxurious cars and shamelessly organize ceremonies as how bill gate does. Poor men, women and children are been brained washed by some men of god, who knowingly and artistically play tricks with some verses in the bible to win into their pockets gold. 

And silver. One may disagree with me on the reason that, some pastors do extra-curricular activities and make extra investments which could be the source of their great wealth, but this assertion could only be right if we weigh the income they make from their investment and extracurricular activities in relation to the ones they get from the coffers of the church. 

The highest earning pastor in Africa has a net worth of 150 million dollars which makes him richer than about 78% of Africans (over 700 million people), both the rich and the poor. Not to be driven away from the course of this article, a reason why we pay offertory in our churches is to provide a capital source for remunerating church workers, organization of church activities and also to cater for the maintenance of the church. But won’t this be a stupidity, if the church is already rich and its pastor has a net worth of over 100 million Ghana cedi’s yet we still pay him salary? Whiles there are men, women, children in the church who are dying of hunger, whose fees are left unsettled yet our pastors still preach to them about the paying of offertory. Is there any more exploitation than this? 

There are many out there who are irritated by the words written here and may in their heart say, paying offertory is a voluntary act and those who are poor are not expected to pay out of compulsion, forgetting that, that same bible talks about tithe and other fees to which the church goer is obliged to pay (Malakai 3:10, Malakai 3:8, proverbs 3:9, Luke 18:12). 

Jesus Christ the father of Christianity and the start to outreach, he performed many miracles yet he charged not a penny for his service to man, he lived 32 years of his life on gifts, no permanent abode and on the fruits of nature. He asked his disciples never to charge a fee for their service and he said unto them, live life like I did, yet our disciples today, our pastors today, charge as high as 500gh cedi’s for consultancy fee, prayer fees, healing fees, healing water and blessings forgetting in their heart that serving God is not an economic activity rather it’s a voluntary work which must carry no salary. It’s a disgrace to the church for such an act to be done in the name of God and from the scriptures I premise my judgment that these exploiters will end at nothing but the lake of fire that they themselves preach. 

 

 

After the white man left, he left a political system in which the elected, the elite and the deceiver rules. These groups of rulers, which our English scholars refer to as politicians, take our heart to the devil in exchange for riches. They enjoy the highest remuneration on our lands yet they indulge in the filthy act of corruption the most. They pay themselves judgment debts, award themselves contracts , use our resources to reach the lands of the west and sleep in expensive hotels, they design their offices with good arts yet refuse to visit the work places. Just recently we heard of people such as Victoria Hammah, Muntaka Mubarak, Agbesi Woyome and the likes. 

We heard of the zero result squandering of 317 million Ghana cedi’s on the local level elections to which no fruit was yield  and yet we still allow these men to rule us. A wise man once said, the white man’s rule is good but only good in Britain and today we have a living testimony to such a truth. What kind of exploitation is there than the once the P’s put us through. ‘Let he who cheats and steal face the law and be jailed ‘, but this exploiters still live among us as heroes and men of honor and nothing is done but to give to them the tax paid by the poor and we will forever live in poverty. 

The monthly pay of those who are to serve us rather than to rule us, equals the annual income of a market woman at nkawkaw yet these market women are made to pay more tax than the exploiter. They enjoy sitting allowances, petrol and travelling allowances yet they sit to do nothing but to blame the ordinary poor man as the cause of its own misery.

Surprising as it seems, these exploiters start their occupational names with a P and we can tell in our hearts who they are. This art is not to mis-tag a political figure neither is it a way to mislead the innocent believer but to show the exploiters among us.