The Chief Executive Officer of Genet Services and convener of Women in Worship, Gina Ella Nettey, has revealed that she was stopped by the National Security of Ghana from organising her national thanksgiving event.

She said it was because the President of the Republic, John Dramani Mahama, planned to hold the same event during that period.

In an interview with Roselyn Felli on Joy Prime’s CHANGES show, she explained that she had a revelation from God early this year to hold a national thanksgiving ceremony to express gratitude to God on behalf of the nation’s leadership for a successful election and Independence Day celebration.

According to her, she began publicity and reached out to Parliament for support, which they consented to and permitted her to proceed with. However, after rescheduling the event, she was later informed that the President would be holding a similar event around the same time.

Mrs. Nettey still intended to proceed, hoping to collaborate with the Presidency. She said she followed up to confirm a new date for her event, but it became a difficult period, as she was not receiving any concrete response.

Eventually, the National Security instructed her to cancel the event. “…I decided that why not do a national thanksgiving on 7^th March because 6^th March is the birthday of Ghana, and since people go to church to say thank you to God after celebrating their birthdays. So how about thanking God for Ghana? And this is an individual mandate God gave me to do. No resources; nothing to do it but then I put myself together and started sharing flyers, doing publicity and calling on people I thought could help me out.

"They gave me the space, but my target was to call on the First Lady of Ghana to be part of it because her birthday was also on the 6^th, and since we’re thanking God for Mother Ghana, it would have been appropriate for the mother of the land to associate with the brand. Also, I consider the CSR aspect when organising events, so we are supposed to look at the maternity rate, curb childbirth and death of children. It was a lot I was going to do in relation to women and childbirth, but mom (First Lady) wasn’t in the country, so I decided to wait and get in touch with her on how best we could go about it. I reached out to parliament to be part of it because it’s about Ghana and not me.”

“They consented to it but along the line when they gave me the space, I changed the date only to realise that the President had also instituted a National Thanksgiving and Prayer. So I was looking at reaching out or they could reach out so we collaborate since we’re all worshiping one God, because I have the logistics, but nobody reached out. I went back to take my letter for the new date, and guess what, I combed the whole of Accra for my letter to the extent that Rev. Abraham Lamptey had to go with me to the big house so we could understand why National Security is stopping me from doing the event,” she narrated.

She was eventually called on a Sunday, and upon arriving at the office and inquiring why she couldn’t hold the event, she was informed that her event coincided with the President’s initiative.

Despite the rejection, she persisted and booked a different venue. However, she was instructed not to use Ghana’s national colours for the event.

 “I called UPSA and got their auditorium which was far expensive but I didn’t want to call the event off. In the process of setting up, I got another call from the big house telling me not to touch Ghana colours and that I should make sure I don’t use Ghana colours.”

According to her, individuals who had been scheduled to perform at the event were instructed not to attend, with the claim that she was impersonating the President to organise it.

Although the event was eventually held successfully, attendance was not as anticipated, which she said left her heartbroken and drove her into a state of despair. She admitted that she even contemplated suicide but changed her mind after thinking about her son.