President John Dramani Mahama attended Sunday worship at the Cedar Mountain Chapel of Assemblies of God, East Legon, Accra, where he was received by Reverend Stephen Wengam, General Superintendent of Assemblies of God, Ghana.
Addressing the congregation, President Mahama expressed his desire for God to use him as an instrument to change the fortunes of the country.
“My prayer is, God use me as your instrument. It is you who brought me to this place. It is you who will let me serve your purpose. And the purpose is to serve my fellow Ghanaians and make sure that we’re able to turn the fortunes of this country around and make everybody’s life better,” he said.
President Mahama, who is a member of the Assemblies of God, Ghana, was unable to join the Cedar Mountain Chapel congregation on Sunday, January 26, for the Thanksgiving Service held in honour of the late Madam Deborah Wengam, mother of Rev Stephen Wengam, as he was travelling outside Ghana.
President Mahama recounted that when he was young, several times he wanted to do something else but not to be a doctor or a lawyer.
He said while other people might want to be Presidents, lawyers and doctors, he wanted to do the ordinary things.
“I mean, if you ask me what do you want to be in future, I didn’t say I want to be a doctor or a lawyer. At one time I wanted to be a fireman. Because I like their uniform and the red fire trucks they used to drive,” he said.
Then another time I wanted to be a State Transport Company driver. Because you sit in the car from Tamale to Accra, the way he’s driving it, it looks nice.”
The President said God was behind his career path; saying “God has kept pushing me in the direction that he wants me to go. At every point, I have been reluctant to follow that trajectory. For instance, politics, I was reluctant to go into politics.”
He said his unwillingness to go into politics was because of what his late father, Mr Emmanuel Adama Mahama went through in politics following the overthrow of Ghana’s first President Dr Kwame Nkrumah – he was arrested and locked up for two years.
President Mahama said his father was so traumatised that he never wanted to have anything to do with politics and so he went into business and became a very successful commercial rice farmer in the north.
“And so because of the narrations that he had given about the trauma he suffered in prison and the setbacks he suffered as a result of his politics, my mind was, I will not be a politician. But God said, who are you to decide? I will do with you what I want. And the rest is history.”
The late Mr Emmanuel Adama Mahama was a Minister under Dr Nkrumah.
Reverend Wengam praised President Mahama and his wife Lordina for their encouragement and support while he was on a Divine mission to build the Cedar Mountain Chapel.
He said the Assemblies of God community both in Ghana and abroad took pride in having four Presidents including President Mahama whom he described as the church’s “First Fruit President”.
Rev Wengam led a team of Pastors to pray for the President.
