Ajunako- Mando (C/R), March 7, GNA - The Head of the Ajumako-Mando Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana, the Very Reverend Charles Aaron Ekuban, has called on Ghanaians to re-dedicate themselves and endeavour to make sacrifices so that the nation could be paddled forward. He said the anniversary of the nation's independence calls for complete self-appraisal, dedication and sacrifice on the part the entire citizenry, without thinking of any political motive so that, "collectively we can achieve the targets set by the founding fathers of the nation some 48 years ago."

Very Rev. Ekuban was addressing members of the Mando branch of the Church at a special church service to commemorate the 48th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

Very Rev. Ekuban, who derived his sermon from the Acts of Apostles Chapter 3: 4-7, said before the nation secured self-government in 1957, she was just like the physically-challenged man who used to beg for money in front of a temple.

He said, "when the disabled man saw Peter and John at the forecourt of the temple, he begged them for money but he gazed at him and said we have no silver and gold to be given to you but in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, get up and walk and instantly the sick person was healed."

Very Rev. Ekuban said similarly, the nation received that type of healing from the grips of her colonial masters nearly 50 years ago, when the founding fathers struggled and prayed incessantly to God for self-governance.

He said since then it had enjoyed quite enormous divine love, mercy, compassion and clemency at all levels of her endeavour, even though it had not been all that easy throughout out her 48 years journey.

He noted that Ghana, after independence has had an undulating life, adding that a lot of waters had passed under the bridge; some of the waters had been rough, some had been still, some had been very dirty, and some had been clean.

"It is therefore, incumbent on her sons and daughters who are still alive to brush aside completely their inordinate individual and collective political ambitions and rally firmly behind the government and parliamentarians they had elected through the ballot box for effective and smooth development," Rev. Ekuban added.

He charged Christians to avoid telling lies and always go by the truth to enable them to enjoy a better spiritual and material life while on earth and after death.

Christians, the Very Rev. Ekuban said, have a greater obligation to work for the country's socio-economic, spiritual and political development, adding that followers of Christ must be bold all the time to point out the mistakes of their neighbours and expose people who indulged in criminal and other activities which undermine the forward march of the country.