The prophetic ministry and issues of concern
The directive by the Office of the Presidential Envoy for Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations urging “prophets” and “men and women of God” to relay any prophecy or spiritual insight relating to a national character to the office has caused controversy in the space of religion and spirituality.
The directive, issued by the Presidential Envoy for Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, emphasised that prophecies with implications for high-profile political leaders, national governance, national security, or public stability should be submitted to the office for urgent review and appropriate escalation.
While a statement to this effect maintains that “this is in the spirit of responsibility, discernment, and stewardship over the nation’s destiny”, it has fuelled suspicion over an attempt to censor religious undertakings or spiritual exercises.
In an area as delicate and sensitive as religion, such directives are likely to elicit protestation for the varied interpretations they could be subjected to.
But where many subjects have been debated, and personalities and institutions questioned on thorny matters, religion escapes to the altar of “God’s direction”.
That is why prophecies of doom have emerged about a forewarning of the helicopter crash that killed eight, including two ministers of state and the three crew, on August 6, 2025.
The mix of a nation’s grief and what looks like pastoral heroism negates the time-tested cultural sensitivity of the Ghanaian. It rakes the wounds of already distraught families, and undermines the reverence usually accorded the dead.
Ghana’s history with prophecy has been an interesting one. In 2022, the Police Administration cautioned churches and the clergy against doomsday prophecies, the kind usually delivered on New Year’s Eve.
The police repeated the caution in December 2024, urging the religious setup not to create fear and panic through “prophecies”.
“I am not against prophecies made in the country, but the manner in which they are being communicated can cause fear and panic,” then Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, said on Thursday, January 19, 2023, when he appeared before a parliamentary sub-committee.
“I am not afraid to die because death is inevitable. However, we will not allow people who ascribe prophetic roles to themselves to cause fear and panic by making public their revelations,” Dr Dampare told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
“We are not asking them not to prophesy, but when what is said, especially about pubic personalities, creates fear and panic among their nuclear families, extended families, as well as friends and loved ones and the nation in general, that is unacceptable,” he added as reported by Graphic Online.
The fears of the Police Administration may have a genuine basis in experience. In December 2018, a Christian leader prophesied that the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Usmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, would die before the end of 2019.
Muslim youth, apparently enraged by the prophecy on the over 90-year-old, attacked the church of the Christian leader.
The Chief Imam remains alive to this day.
Showbiz personality Charles Nii Armah, popularly known as Shatta Wale, also faked his death in October 2021, as he claimed, in response to a prophecy that he was about to die.
Worst still, the clergy has been accused of allowing its membership to be diluted by fake men and women, some of whom have been publicly dragged apart for their actions or utterances.
In a recent article published on Graphic Online on the need to regulate churches, the author, Joseph Annan Quaye, wrote: “Religion — particularly Christianity — remains relatively unregulated.
This regulatory vacuum has led to a situation where virtually anyone can wake up, claim a divine calling, and start a church without the requisite training, licensing, mentorship, or ethical framework”.
While the Bible admonishes Christians not to treat prophecy with contempt (1 Thessalonians 5:20), the tendency to cash in on the ignorance and fears of the public is a known practice.
The failed prophecies on the 2024 elections are a reminder.
All stakeholders must help sanitise the prophetic ministry.
