Rev Okosun (fourth right) made the call as part of GNA’s road safety campaign
The Reverend Kennedy Okosun, Action Chapel International Special Envoy to Diplomatic Missions and Governments has called on all Clergy to set “Zero Road Crash Campaign” for their congregation to help enforce safety on the road.
Rev. Okosun explained that the Clergy’s Zero Road Crash might sound over-ambitious but “if we strive hard and speak on it every day it is possible,” Rev. Okosun stated at the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office, and Tema Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) Road Safety campaign platform.
The GNA-Tema and MTTD Road Safety Project seek to create consistent and systematic weekly awareness advocacy on the need to be cautious on the road as a user, educate all road users of their respective responsibilities, and sensitize drivers especially on the tenets of road safety regulations, rules, and laws.
Speaking on “The Ministers of the Gospels’ Role in Reducing Road Crashes,” Rev. Okosun said: “We must deal with the causal factors by encouraging authorities to work on the bad roads, replace or mount new road signage at strategic locations, fix or replace street lights.
“We must also encourage our members to drive with the right qualification, churches must employ people with the right documents to drive and also help them to periodically undertake refresher causes, we must discourage drink driving, speak against speeding and poor states of vehicles,” he said.
Rev. Okosun who is the Executive Chairman of Krif Ghana and Editor-In-Chief Krif Media (Integrity Magazine) explained that unqualified persons handling vehicles include people who are under age, others with poor eyesight, partially blind, others with either short or long sight.
He said sight plays a very critical role in driving, some road crashes are caused by poor eyesight, some drivers have difficulty driving in the night yet they are still behind their wheels; while a lot of road users struggles with short sight or long sight but refuse to wear recommended spectacle making them a potential danger to themselves and other road users.
Rev. Okosun who is also former Chief of Staff of Action Chapel urged the Clergy to consider these actions as an act to save the perishing, “we must use our pulpit to campaign for zero road crashes, we must save souls which is part of our calling as Ministers of the Gospel”.
He advised all drivers to desist from drinking before driving because driving under the influence of substances like weed or alcohol can be a major cause of road crashes.
Rev. Okosun also encouraged the Clergy to show more interest in what other clergymen are doing in terms of road safety campaign and its related activities, this he believes it will help cut down the recent increased in motor accidents on the roads in the country.
Mr Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Manager said that Ministers of the Gospel have a huge influence on their members, hence the need to rope them into the Road Safety Campaign.
“We are begging every Minister of the Gospel that anytime you mount the pulpit please just use two minutes of your time to talk about road safety. You will be saving your members from road crashes,” he said.
Mr Ameyibor noted that the GNA Tema Office is engaging Religious, Traditional, Political, and Corporate Leaders as well to become Road Safety Ambassadors.
He said: “It is time to wake up and collectively make the road safe for all to use either as a driver, passenger, or pedestrian, we are all connected to the road”.
Accident data for the first half of the year in Tema indicates that out of a total of 637 road crashes 445 were private vehicles. In the first quarter out of 344 road crashes private vehicles recorded 248 and in the second quarter out of 293 crashes private vehicles recorded 197.