The Editor, Sir:

We certainly must be grateful for the recent measure of reduction in murders and other crimes and, applaud the effort of all those who contributed in this regard. However, it is important that we do not misread the indicators or misdirect the praise.

We want to make it abundantly clear that we should be thanking God for the reduction that we have seen in our crime rate, as it is due mainly to the effective prayers for the healing of the nation which have been focused on our crime problem since January.

At that time, Christian leaders declared that there would be a decline in crime in 2006. It is not due primarily to our technical brilliance or improved crime-fighting methods.

The reality is that nothing has changed in terms of the factors that drive our crime problem. Illegal guns, the existence of garrisons, the illegal drug trade, the growth in extortionists, the problem of high unemployment, dysfunctional families, political tribalism and poverty remain and worsened in some areas.

Also on the increase is the number of youths who seem to be living without a sense of purpose and hope. This makes for a potential increase in criminality, which could explode with great ferocity.

Let us be careful not to deceive ourselves into thinking that we are winning the war against crime. We are experiencing a lull, due to the intervention of prayer and, with minimum, increase in human effort and strategies. We must now use the opportunity in this period to take definitive steps to tackle the causative factors. Failure to do so will see the resurgence of crime and violence in multiplied intensity, as the criminal elements will continue to use new strategies to counter and unleash their activities on our society. This is how the nature of evil works. Evil, when attacked, withdraws and returns with greater intensity. Hence, the only lasting solution is to remove the root causes and replace them with that which will produce the positive/desired outcomes.

The sense of hope brought about by the installation of our new Prime Minister provides an opportunity for us to deal with these root causes. Unfortunately, no outward manifestation of this is evident, to date. If something is not done sooner than later, the window of opportunity will close and our latter end will be worse than the first.

I am, etc.,

AL MILLER

Whole Life Ministries