“For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3).
On the 1st of July, 2025, as I sat quietly at the Patmos Prayer Center in Akropong, praying for Ghana, I could not help filling my heart with tons of pure joy as I thanked God for making things beautiful in his own time.
Indeed, one of my talismanic songs is, “In His time, He makes all things beautiful in His time …”.
To God be the glory, great things He has done and greater things He will do.
As a very close aide and confidant of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, I lived through his thought processes as an Opposition Leader and also as the President of our beloved Ghana, and I know (as many others do), his genuine love for God and how he desired to, and succeeded in making God the Ruler of Ghana. He would oft say, “God is the President and I am only the vessel”.
I saw him pray before and after every Cabinet Meeting, he prayed immediately he sat in vehicles before every journey, he prayed when he sat in planes to travel by air, he prayed everyday when he entered his office before work started; he prayed, prayed and prayed!
13 years after his passing-on to glory, I do not stop meeting people who say “… as for President Atta-Mills, his love for God and country was so genuine …”.
About four years ago, I was told by one of President Mills’s spiritual/prayer pivots that, all the time that he prayed with Candidate Atta-Mills (he was not yet President), the running theme was “God please give me Ghana, and I will give Ghana back to you”.
So, when God gave him Ghana on the 7th of January, 2009, it was not surprising that His Excellency John Evans Atta-Mills, gave Ghana back to God via instituting the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving.
In 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, President Atta-Mills personally led the Nation to give thanks to God, pray for forgiveness, ask for His mercies, blessings and diving guidance to help build A BETTER GHANA. All four Events took place at the Independence Square.
I recall with lots of sadness, how President Mills’s open love for God came up for vile partisan ridicule by some political opponents – as if worshipping God was a crime or sign of weakness.
At one time, when some political opponents tried to ridicule President Atta-Mills for “turning the Castle into a prayer camp”, he responded; “I wish the whole of Ghana was turned into a prayer camp”.
Working closely with President Atta-Mills, his deeply spiritual nature and total dependence on God had absolutely nothing to do with folding his arms and waiting for God to perform the tasks or do the work. Not at all!
To the contrary, his dependence on God was for God to give him the strength, grant him the wisdom to be able to take the right decisions as he worked hard to lead Ghana up glorious paths of righteousness and the extremely positive results sat on top of national/international news bulletins as the economy blossomed and blessings flowed.
President Barack Obama choosing to make Ghana the first African country he visited, was ample testimony of how the world focused its lenses on the glowing lights of the leadership style of President Atta-Mills.
Of course, over the years and having found my own deeper paths of spiritual growth, I have come to understand that as a President of any nation, you will have to covenant with a higher authority (good or bad).
“… but the people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits” (Daniel 11:32). President Atta-Mills chose to covenant with the one and only True God and He made the President strong for him to carry out great exploits.
Going back to my foundation text from Habakkuk 2:3, I am very glad that at God’s own appointed time, He has made it possible for His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, to re-introduce the National Day of Prayer and thanksgiving.
Indeed, immediately he got sworn-in on, January 07, 2025, I recall that one of the earliest policy statements of the new President, was that, he would re-institute the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving – it has been done. Hallelujah!!!
The all-important need for the God-factor in nation-building cannot be over-emphasised and I cannot hide my extreme delight in President Mahama putting God First as he strives to lead Ghana up a good growth and development trajectory.
However, it is important to add that as a Nation, the God-factor is not limited only to, Ceremonial Deism.
That is to say, we must not remember God only during national ceremonies like the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving and forget about Him until we gather again annually for another such event.
God exists in our National Anthem, National Pledge, Coat-of-Arms, Flag (State Symbols), and we must engage in a very deliberate and focused Mindset Transformation which would force us to build a permeating national psyche glued to our state symbols.
At the MILLS (Mindset, Integrity, Loyalty, Leadership, Service) Institute for Transformational Leadership Development, which is anchored to Public Policy Advocacy, our driving ethos, is to advocate for the etching of the words of our Anthem and Pledge onto the nation’s psyche in such a way that our value systems as a Ghanaian People, will reflect the words of these two major state symbols.
For instance, if Ghana decides to say that all offices must carry aspects of the Anthem (Cherish Fearless Honesty), and if that becomes our covenant with the State, then we will now have every reason to “force” God to bless our homeland Ghana and make us great and strong because He is covenant keeping God.
In other words, beyond the ceremonies, let us live in the words of the Anthem and Pledge; let the words also live in us.
The MILLS Institute has been collaborating with the Coalition of Nation Builders (CNB), and, since April, we have started a monthly Thought Leadership Series on “Mindset Transformation: The God-Factor In Nation Building”.
We are therefore very grateful to God that our prayers have been answered and the President is leading the whole nation to give space to the Thought Leadership Series that the MILLS Institute and Coalition of Nation Builders are engaged in.
Indeed, “I have joy in my heart, deep deep down in my heart. That Jesus gave to me and no one can deny me …”.
“Onipa ye adie a, or se ayeyie”. To wit ‘Credit must go where it is due”. There is no denying the fact that the re-institution of the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving by President John Dramani Mahama is a very illuminating decision and the more illuminating aspect of it, is the decision to tie it onto our Republic Day to give it greater national meaning and focus.
My only genuine concern is; considering the way we play our almost-blinded partisan politics in Ghana, will another President assume office and stop it?
I choose to look on the brighter side of God’s supreme authority and believe that the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving has come to stay forever because “with God, all things are possible” (Mathew 19:26).
God be our Helper.
AMEN!!!
Samuel Koku Anyidoho
Founder & CEO, MILLS Institute
Theologian and Transgenerational Thinker
Email:[email protected]
Thursday, July 3, 2025.
