The leadership of the African nation of Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic Party has directed all of its party branches nationwide to set up prayer groups, both Christian and Muslim, by August 20 “to seek God’s favor in their quest to win the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.”

Earlier, the party had criticized Ghana’s President John Atta Mills for setting up a prayer camp for leaders in his administration.

The Ghanian news website GhanaWeb reported that NPP General Secretary Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie denied the NPP “had shifted the goal posts.” Instead, he insisted “we believe in the efficacy of prayer. But we also believe that when God gives you direction, you must also work towards that. So as you continue to pray to God, you must also act.

“Governments are there to govern, so as you put your trust in the Lord and God shows you the way, you must demonstrate that — by working to ensure that everything is fine.”

An oil-producing state, Ghana is the site of Lake Volta, the world’s largest man-made lake, which generates electricity for Ghana and surrounding states. It had the world’s fastest growing economy in 2011 — with an growth rate of about 20.146 percent — according to the International Monetary Fund. 

Speaking to Citi News, Afriyie said both the Bible and the Quran admonish the faithful to trust in the Lord, especially when they face a battle.

It is therefore only natural that Ghana’s main opposition party would “seek the face of the Lord” in the crucial 2012 electoral battle.

“We believe that if we put our trust in the Lord and in Allah, as our Muslim brothers will say, then God will manifest Himself in our direction and ensure that we win the 2012 elections,” said Afriyie. “We believe in the efficacy of prayer and we believe that if we pray and we are sincere about the prayer, God will answer us in due course.”

He said the present party’s executives already had a prayer camp in the party headquarters where they prayed from “4 a.m. to 6 a.m. everyday” for the party “and we believe that the successes that we chalked in our presidential and parliamentary primaries were all due to the prayers that we prayed to Almighty God.”