Bolgatanga, Dec. 31, GNA- Mrs. Agnes Chigabatia, Deputy Upper East Regional Minister at the weekend expressed disgust about the spate of moral decadence among the youth in the country and the corrupt attitude exhibited by some lenders.

She expressed the sentiment when Christians Churches in the Region organized praise and thanksgiving for Ghana and to pray for good leaders to be chosen by God in the forthcoming elections. "Most of our youth almost dress nakedly and go around looking for men, especially in the cities thereby acquiring STDs/HIV/AIDS. We need to check this."

She indicated that, if the situation was not checked now the manpower of the country would be jeopardized in future. She challenged churches to use the pulpit to turn the moral decadence in the society around by embodying and highlighting the message of good moral practices in their sermons.

Mrs. Chigabatia stated that the rising crime wave, drug abuse and the rise of HIV/AIDS cases in the country could have been minimized if churches constantly inculcated good moral messages in their sermons and urged them to do that.

"Churches for the past had contributed immensely to the socio-economic development in the country. but there was the need to do more, especially in the area of moral decadence", she emphasized. Churches, she noted, were development partners of the state and this needed to be grown from strength to strength.

Mrs. Chigabatia also expressed her displeasure about the spate of corruption in some institutions in the country and appealed to churches to join hands with anti- corruption institutions to fight the canker. Apostle Emmanuel Achim Gyimah, in his sermon explained that no nation could develop properly if the nation lacked righteous leaders.

Apostle Gyimah explained that, countries which had no righteous leaders always experienced corruption and this retarded development. He stated that most African leaders yearned to amass wealth at the detriment of their subjects and this always created instability. He stated that the word righteousness was used in the scripture for more than 552 times indicating that God placed premium on righteousness for any country to be ruled successfully. "Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a disgrace to any nation" he said, and appealed to Ghanaians to pray for righteous leaders during the forthcoming elections.

The occasion was also used to pray for the region, those in leadership position and the country at large.