By Kwesi Yankah
How long does power last? Please find below a powerful sermon on power by Archbishop Duncan Williams, early August.
“Who shall make you prosper? Your economy? Your nation? The political party in power?
For some of you, your future belongs to a political party. Unless your party comes to power, you can never make money because you haven’t developed capacity. You need your political party to come into power before you can make money. So whenever your party is out of power, you pursue the new party in office. You scheme against them, You lie against them. It doesn’t matter how well they perform. You must sabotage them and destroy them so your party can come to power and you can make money.
Then, when your party comes to power, what you did to them they also do to you when you leave office. They must also come to power because people have not developed the capacity to create wealth. So we are not creating wealth. It is a vicious cycle. We are destroying one another; we are destroying the country because one party comes to power only to make money, while the other party in opposition cannot make money because they do not know how to create wealth. All they do is scheme, insult, and destroy others through social media so they can come into power.
Even though they do not have the capacity to hold public office, because they pushed for their party to come into power, they are given positions without the necessary competence. They misbehave, and they have wives who will never tell their husbands: “You have never worked before; you have never started a business, you don’t pay taxes, so how is it that you suddenly come home with briefcases full of money? Where is this money coming from? Where did this brand-new car come from? Where did you get the money to build this new house?
“You have never developed the capacity to earn this. You haven’t earned it. Where is it coming from?” But you don’t ask questions. You enjoy it, give him more affection, and encourage him to go and kill, lie, steal, scheme, destroy, and make money at the expense of poor people. Then, when your party comes into power, what you did to them they also do to you. You do not understand the implication. He will die prematurely. His days will be few. He will not live long enough to enjoy that house. He will not live long enough to enjoy that brand-new car because he did not sweat for it. He did not work for it. He cannot keep it. “Whatever you did not earn, you cannot maintain. You only maintain what you have built through capacity, hard work, and the price you have paid.”
And so we live in a country—we are developing a country and a nation—where people are not taught how to develop the capacity to earn. We have developed, and we are still developing, a society where all you have to do is belong to a political party. All you have to do is scheme, misrepresent innocent people, lie about others, and have no capacity. It doesn’t matter. Be a schemer or an armed robber. As long as you belong to a party, when your party comes into office, you are given access to the national cake, and you take whatever you want at the expense of the suffering of the citizens. Make no mistake. You think you are getting away with it? No, no, no, no, no. You will end up with some terrible disease, and what you have acquired, you will not enjoy.
“Listen. Listen. Listen, I’m not just talking about Ghana. I’m talking about nations, especially in Africa. I have seen presidents in prison. I have seen presidents, ministers of state, and very powerful people who once held strategic positions and possessed billions of dollars, suffering in prison. Some of them are afflicted with incurable diseases. The money they stole cannot heal them. Their children are miserable. Their wives are miserable. They built beautiful houses, but they cannot live in them. They cannot dwell in them. They are afraid to drive the cars they stole money to buy. Hear me. Hear me. I’m not cursing anybody, but I’m telling you with authority: make no mistake. The evil that men do lives after them.
Hear me. Hear me. The law of sowing and reaping does not need your address or your telephone number. When it is time for you to reap, it will find you. You can hide; you can hide in the rocks and in the mountains surrounding Jerusalem. But when the day comes, it will find you. And you wives who refuse to speak to your husbands—you know they are stealing. You know they are thieves. You know they have not worked for the money they are bringing home. You know they bought you a brand-new car, yet you never ask, “Where did you get this money? This car costs $250,000. You have never earned $10,000 before. You have never even saved $5,000 in your bank account. Where did you get the money to buy me this car?”
You don’t ask. You simply enjoy it, and you reward them with your approval. Don’t worry. Check the Bible. When the men schemed against Daniel and had him thrown into the lions’ den, their wives and children knew nothing about it. But when Daniel survived and prevailed, the king issued a command: “Bring everyone who was behind Daniel’s suffering—those who conspired against him. Bring them, their wives, their children, and their entire households. Throw them all into the lions’ den.”
Their wives who were innocent, and their children who were innocent, were all devoured by the lions, even though they had not taken part in the conspiracy. Those of you who know what is going wrong but say nothing—who remain silent because you do not want to be misrepresented, attacked, or lose your job—you watch evil continue unchecked. I pray that the God of heaven, the God of justice, will step into the situation and ensure that none of you goes unpunished. It is only a matter of time. It does not matter how long it takes; it is simply a matter of time.
Hear me. I have dealt with presidents. I have dealt with billionaires. I have dealt with people of great wealth. Rosa will tell you. I have seen their present condition and state. Some of them call and say, “Papa, pray for us. Papa, can you make a call for us?”
And I look at them. There was a president who wielded tremendous power. Some years ago, I visited his country and said to him, “Mr. President, the way you are treating those in the opposition is not good. One day, you will leave office, and if you do not stop what you are doing, they will come after you.” He did not listen. A few years later, he left office, and the new president went after him. He and his vice president came to Ghana to see me and asked me to intercede with the new president on his behalf. So we went to see the then president—not the current one, but the president at that time. The president asked him, “Why are you here?” He replied, “We came to see the Archbishop.” They did not immediately explain why. Eventually, I spoke with the new president and said, “Mr. President, whatever he did to you, do not do the same to him. Be better than he was, because one day you too will leave this office. Power has an expiry date. Power is not forever. Money is not forever.”
Those of you who think power is forever are deceiving yourselves. Those of you who think money is forever are also deceiving yourselves. If money could save a person, then Steve Jobs would still be alive. Those of you who believe that everything in life is about money—money, money, money—and that all you have to do is get money, regardless of how you get it, are mistaken. You kill people. You lie. You destroy people’s reputations. You sabotage others. You pay people on social media to attack innocent people because you are a coward. You cannot confront them directly, so you hide behind social media and bloggers to destroy their reputation.
If you are truly bold, if you are a real man then come out. Show your face. Speak openly, and let us have the conversation. But you hide behind others because you are not courageous. That is not the mark of a real man. A real man is willing to stand openly and defend what he believes. We live in a passive and fearful society. People see what is wrong yet nobody speaks. Everybody is hiding. But a day will come—a day when the truth shall emerge. It does not matter how long the truth is hidden. A day will come when it will be revealed. You think you are powerful today. Years ago, I knew a man who was so influential that I will not mention the country. After the cabinet had met and agreed on a decision, he would have dinner with the president. By the end of that dinner, he would persuade the president to reverse the cabinet’s decision. The president would return to the cabinet and say, “I have reconsidered the decision we took. I am going in another direction.” He was so powerful that people would say, “Don’t go to the president. This man has so much influence that he can change the president’s mind. Go and speak to him instead.” People believed he had the president completely under his control because the president seemed to do everything he advised.
But a day came when he and the president had a serious disagreement. Their conflict became so intense that he turned to social media to attack and discredit the president. In response, the president ordered his arrest. It was a very unfortunate situation. Then I received a phone call. They said, “Papa, could you please intervene in this matter? It is very unfortunate that this has happened. Please speak to the old man.”
I replied, “I hear you.” But I said to myself, “I am not going to say anything. When you had power, you showed no regard or respect for anyone. Now it is time to face the consequences.”
Thank You, Archbishop Duncan Williams.
Whom the cap fits, let them wear it.
kyankah@ashesi.edu.gh
