Christians and Muslims Advised Against Alcoholism

0
Christians

By Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai

ChristAs usual, Christians in Ghana and the world over are preparing to take part in the Christmas and New Year celebrations. Since the festive days are holidays they will benefit non Christians in the nation as well. As part of the celebrations, church services such as ?all nights? and ?crossovers? will be held all over the country for priests to preach to large congregations about the virtues of Christmas and events leading to the celebrations.
Many families and friends will also organize parties for large and small number of people in towns and villages. As has been the trend annually, many Christians would also travel from one part of the country to the other to celebrate Christmas and the coming New Year. This will be ?bumper harvest? period for drivers and commercial vehicle owners. However the advice given by religious leaders and the Ghana Road Safety Commission in connection with the festive occasions is simple; drivers must take good care of themselves by staying clear from hard liquor when they drive. Drivers must bear in mind that they have the responsibility to drive themselves and their passengers safely to their destinations.

 

Passengers must also restrain drivers who tend to drive recklessly largely under the influence of alcohol. These admonitions that come to our drivers and passengers annually are worth considering. If the drivers and passengers heed to this advice the number of accidents recorded annually during the festive seasons will reduce considerably. According to most religious leaders in the Christian and Islamic faiths, drinking alcohol generally is not good. Imam Ibrahim Toure of the Ashongman Jumma Mosque said in his sermon that God Almighty has prohibited all types of alcoholic beverages that are intoxicants and quoted a passage in the Holy Quran known as ??al bakara?? to support his argument saying that drinking of hard liquors often leads to people committing many iniquities such as fornication, gambling, stealing and many more. The imam also said Christians also do not endorse the consumption of hard liquor by all persons especially during the Christmas festivities. Ironically however as charismas is around the corner this is the time the alcoholic beverage manufacturers are increasing their production of the hard liquors in Ghana. Some businessmen are busy importing the beverages into the country. Many people who patronize them will purchase a large number to be included in gift packages to their loved ones and men and women in authority. Many drinking bars and drinking pubs will be opened to all manner of persons including students, drivers and sometime adolescents. It is not only Christians who patronize the strong drink. It has become clear that non Christians also patronize them.

 

The danger in this development is that the nation is breeding a large army of people who will be learning to become good at drinking. When they get used to it, it will be difficult for them to depart from the habit in future. Experience has shown that, though businesses in the hard liquor become lucrative during festive seasons such as charismas that business is counterproductive as the hard liquors will go a long way to create health and other problems for the nation. In this regard we commend the Ghana Road Transport Union for their campaigns for people to stay clear from drinking hard liquors? before driving in the country. According to studies at our disposal the campaign has gone down well to the extent of reducing the accident rates during Christmas festivities. TOYOTA Ghana Limited also deserves commendation for initiating a road safety campaign annually to help reduce road accidents and fatalities on the western corridor of Ghana. They are doing this through lectures on the theme ?The Road Safety Memorials? campaign involving the mounting of warning signposts along the Mallam-Winneba stretch of the corridor, which has been identified as one of the black spots in terms of road accidents in the country. This is a step in the right direction and it is our hope that other major transport firms will team up with the MTTU and other relevant organizations to counsel people especially drivers to stop their drinking habits
We support churches and mosques to intensify their sensitization programs against the drinking of hard liquors and for children to stop going to pubs to drink.
School authorities have the responsibility to continue educating their wards on the dangers of excessive drinking. On their part the school authorities should borrow a leaf from the Seventh Day Adventist Church who organizes holiday programs annually for students and youth generally to revise some lessons learnt at school, good citizenship and recreational activities that would promote their good health and wellbeing. The government must take interest in this by urging all the assemblies to embark on massive holiday camps for students during holidays where they would learn to be disciplined. This way we shall minimize the chances of the youth getting involved in activities such as drinking that will promote waywardness in their lives
Executive director

EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
0244 370345/ 0264370345/0208844791 [email protected]/[email protected]

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here