Asamankese (E/R), Jan. 14, GNA - The Founder and Leader of Christ Compassion Ministry International (CCMI), Apostle Joel Kofi Ayim, has described the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as the best health delivery system the nation has ever adopted since independence. Ghanaians must therefore put all partisan issues aside and embrace it firmly without any prejudice for a healthier nation and economic progress.

He said the most interesting and inspiring aspect of the policy was to afford the citizenry, irrespective of social standing, the opportunity to source healthcare at a cheaper cost in any of the state-owned health facilities throughout the country.

Apostle Ayim was addressing about 3,000 members of the Ministry drawn from various branches in the country, as well as those in Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and the United States of America (USA), at a special church service at Asamankese in the Eastern Region at the weekend. It was designed to round off activities marking the weeklong annual convention of the Ministry on the theme: "Truth Will Be Your Reward", during which intensive prayers were said for the impending 50th anniversary of the nation this year.

Apostle Ayim was not happy that some unpatriotic citizens, including people who professed to be ardent Christians and politicians, were bent on painting the policy black in spite of all the good results the nation was realizing from it because of political and other differences.

He said the new health delivery policy would provide a lasting peace and hope for every citizen, particularly, the poor and the vulnerable, citing example with a relative in the United Kingdom (UK) who benefited immensely from a similar system of health delivery being vigorously pursued there.

Turning to the country's Golden Jubilee, Apostle Ayim viewed the period ahead as extremely challenging and calling for critical self-examination of individual citizens' contributions towards the social, economic, cultural and spiritual development of the country. He said if Ghanaians wanted to enjoy God's continued guidance, protection, mercy and, indeed, divine direction, they must forsake their evil and crooked ways such as, envy, selfishness, adultery, peddling and the usage of hard drugs, bickering, bribery and corruption, and misappropriation of state funds.

Apostle Ayim said unless Ghanaians learned to "live by the truth, dine with truth, work with truth, plan with truth, sleep and wake up with the truth always, the nation cannot maintain its leadership position as the leading and shinning star of Africa".

He maintained that Ghana's leadership role, which the attainment of self-government automatically conferred on it, entailed a lot of socio-economic, cultural and religious challenges on the citizenry. "We should therefore use the 50th anniversary to critically subject ourselves to self examination as far as individual and collective contributions towards national development was concerned and quickly make the necessary amends for accelerated development", Apostle Ayim further stated.