One Hashtag That Encapsulates Everything Wrong With The Ghanaian Approach To Problem Solving- #PrayForAccra

accra-floods-2016

Pray for what, exactly?

Disclaimer- I don’t believe in prayer. It is a manifestation of a culture that would rather do nothing but prostate at the feet of father almighty. It is symptomatic of a culture that loves public protestations of piousness even when backed up with nothing.

It is a tool whose fruitfulness is so ambiguous as to be practically useless, as no matter the response believers get to their supposed prayers- action, inaction, indifference- they attribute to God having a plan for them.

If God has a plan already, why bother praying? What do you want him to do? Change his plan?

As a manifestation of action needed in the real world, prayer is the least effective tool one can employ.

Which is why it’s wildly amusing yet laughably predictable, watching the reaction to the floods that hit the capital yesterday. After people went through their outrage at government and then finished offering their professsed solutions to the problem, the #prayforaccra took centre stage.

I’m not quite sure what the purpose of the hashtag is, aside the aforementioned need to appear as part of the in group, a way of showing one’s devotion to the religious clique that underscores the identities almost every individual in the entire nation. Or is it a way to feel like one is doing something about helping assuage the difficult situation without actually doing anything about it? And how many of those who write these things on social media actually get on their knees and pray? Is it all just about the public posturing?

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And even if we accept the premise that prayer works, aren’t there better things to pray about? How about a prayer to not have a country full of insane leaders and citizenry- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. How about praying for a better mayor, a better President, a better group of citizens who actually use their heads and don’t always stick it in the sand and hope some hastily thrown about prayers AFTER the sh*t hits the fan is enough action to take? How about pray for a better God who’s more proactive with answering prayers- what didn’t we pray for in this country after June 3rd?

How about we get off our social media accounts and start behaving like human beings? How about we cease littering the city like it’s nobody’s business? How about we stop doing illegal things because the government itself is spineless enough not to stop anybody building on waterways? How about we stop electing people who are all talk and no action? How about we start using our heads for once?

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How about we start practicing what we preach for once and stop being such spineless hypocrites. The Bible has a lot to say about praying in public in an attempt to garner public adulation. Such prayer campaigns after tragedies reek of nothing but this, the public attempt to gather adulation for doing something without actually doing anything.

Sanctimonious public posturing has gotten us nowhere, because we’ve been doing it since Independence and yet, here we are. People can believe whatever they want and pray to whoever they want, but doing the wrong thing all year round and then thinking a hashtag at the point of reaping the fruits of our stupidity is doing any good is as deluded as it gets.

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