Bawumia’s presence in churches is to promote peaceful co-existence, stop the dangerous name-calling - Ahiagbah

Going on the tangent of name-calling as part of the 2024 general elections is something that should not be encouraged, the Director of Communications of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Richard Ahiagbah has said.

Reacting to Sam George’s description of Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia as a “religious prostitute,” Mr Ahiagbah said that kind of politicking was not good and should be discouraged and condemned.

Sam George’s argument

Sam George, who is the Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, in a television discussion programme on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Tuesday [Nov 7, 2023] said Dr Bawumia cannot be trusted when his “choice of religion is unknown.”

He argued that because Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who has just been elected as the flag bearer of the NPP has been attending church services across the country even though he was a Muslim, he is therefore “a Muslim by day and a Christian by night.”

He accused the Vice President of refusing to speak for Muslims in the past when they needed him, and therefore concluded that Dr Bawumia is not someone who should be allowed to lead the country as president.

To him, Dr Bawumia’s association with both churches and mosques [Christians and Muslims] is purely for political advantage.

Ahiagbah’s reaction

Reacting in a radio interview on Accra based Asempa FM on Wednesday [Nov 8, 2023], Mr Ahiagbah said that line of political campaign by Sam George and other National Democratic Congress (NDC) members if not stopped, could spell doom for the country.

He said the NDC should be called to order, since some NDC members have also decided to join in the name-calling.

"I get angry when I talk about this matter, but it seems it is a new song the NDC is now singing. We must make it clear to them that it can spell doom because being tolerant doesn’t mean you don’t appreciate your values.

It is to promote peaceful co-existence and that is why Ghana is the envy of some countries. If we don’t stop, it won’t end well for us. We can play with certain things but there are limits,“ he said.

According to him, although there are times some NDC members who are Christians are seen in the Mosque and with Imams, that does not make them 'religious prostitutes."