Tuesday, June 18, 2024, will go down in history as the day Ra stopped as the sun stood still in the Bible. Joshua prayed to God to stop the sun from moving, giving his army time to fight in daylight. In addition to Joshua’s request, God sent a storm of hail and fire on the enemy, leading the Israelites to victory.
So far, the “Don’t Touch the Hotels Demonstration” has been a huge success in blocking government interference in some of Ghana’s luxury hotels, especially Labadi Beach Hotel and La Palm Royal Beach Hotel.In primitive knowledge, the prayer of La Uromo, N’mo Iemo Obloni VII is synonymous with Joshua’s prayer.
The sea is blue and the streets are covered in the red that symbolizes La Uromo’s costumes: red and blue, combined in equal proportions, create purple, a color usually associated with movement and consciousness.
From a spiritual perspective, purple is considered to be the highest vibration in the perceptible spectrum. Purple also represents a sign of the future, imagination and dreams that La Uromo proclaimed in his prayers, a future where governments will not dare to dispossess the Gadambe people of their land in such an insulting manner as has happened in the past especially under the administration of Nana Akufo-Addo.
La Uromo offered prayers and libations for the protesters and demonstrators that the demands of the people be met. The prayers culminated in a fiery rant by La Uromo, who implored the gods to swiftly respond to the cries of the people, who have been repeatedly trampled on by the country’s leaders.
The wrath of the Uromo was expressed by pouring out the jinn in a prayer, emptying the contents, and then breaking the jinn bottle. By invocation of the spirits, a severe curse was pronounced. What remedy was to be offered? It was clear.
When checked with Korle Uromo (Numo Aitei Kobra), he explained that breaking the bottle does not bode well for the government and if this evil practice continues, extreme consequences will be meted out to those involved in the sale of the hotel by the gods and ancestors.
The issue of compensation and land use rights when the land’s original purpose has ceased remains unresolved.
The problem of land grabbing in Accra is spectacular – haphazard and indiscriminate, stealing, selling, vandalising and harming indigenous people.
This is part of the reason why Gadambe people have turned out in large numbers to demonstrate. One person said, “I cannot bear the next generation of Gadambe to question and blame us, why we were indifferent when all our land was taken away. I must now take to the streets to demonstrate without any remorse.”
The truth is that while the La have contributed a lot of land for the development of Ghana, the indigenous people suffer from urban poverty.Government concerns over the redevelopment of the Ghana Trade Fairs Company, the La General Hospital and now two hotels are just some of the myriad challenges facing the La people and by extension the Gadambe people.
Legal measures have been proposed to pass laws to stop government officials from buying state property while in office, and the row that a government minister was behind the hotel purchase lends credence to suspicions of unfairness expressed by many.
Some have described this as a corrupt takeover of the state, but in business terms this is known as insider trading, which does not bode well for a lawful and fair society.
There are provocative questions that require answers.
1. Are there any “righteous men” among the clergy?
2. Have they lost their voice to pray openly and to publicly rebuke the unjust who are plundering the nation?
3. Is their refusal to talk because they are in danger?
4. Do they know that if they do not live up to their calling, they will incur God’s wrath?
5. Are they politically biased?