Founder of All People’s Congress, Dr Hassan Ayariga, has dared religious leaders who are hiding under the pulpit to preach the agenda of political parties to be bold and declare their political colour.
He argued apart from the chieftaincy institution which is constitutionally barred from indulging in partisan politics in the country, religious leaders are at liberty to engage in politics, hence they should be bold and come clean about their political affiliation.
3FM’s Mercydarlyn Lokko reported from a news conference in Accra Thursday that Dr Ayariga condemned the current practice where some religious leaders preach the agenda of politicians instead the word of God.
“If you are a pastor and you want to do politics, it’s okay to do politics but you resign from being a pastor because your followers in church, don’t forget, are from different political parties…, you are to preach the word of god, not that of politician ” he said.
Some Ghanaian pastors have in recent times been tagged as being political or belonging to a particular political party based on their statements which are considered to be either critical ofthe government or a political party.
Both Pastor Mensah Otabil and Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey who have been critical of the John Mahama-led government, have been tagged by some Ghanaians as being apostles of the New Patriotic Party.
“He can wear the NPP shirt and walk around, and possibly, the NPP can choose him as the running mate or the flagbearer…that will help him instead of hiding behind the Presbyterian Church to make unguarded comments” General Secretary of the NDC, Asiedu Nketia told Rev Martey Wednesday.
But Dr Ayariga at the news conference said nobody is stopping religious leaders from becoming politicians but caution them against doing the bidding of a particular political party while they serve in their pastoral capacity.
“So if you want to be a politician, it’s very nice to come out in the church, tell them look, young men and women I have serve God for some time now and I’m happy serving God but I want to move from serving God to serving people, a political party,” he said.
“Nobody is stopping you from doing that, but when you pull a lot of crowd in the name of God and you come and abuse that word of God by using your platforms for politicians to come entertain. In the first place don’t you know you are going against God’s word? Don’t you know you are betraying the trust of the members of your church or your mosque? he asked.
Our correspondent reported that Dr Ayariga also cautioned religious leaders to desist from giving prophecies about who will win the December 7 elections.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|3news.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh_TV3
