Dennis Miracles Aboagye, Special Aide to former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for the scrapping of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah’s role as Presidential Envoy on Religious Affairs.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, August 16, Mr Aboagye questioned why taxpayers’ money should be used to fund a role that, in his view, duplicates existing responsibilities within government.
“I think that Honourable Elvis Afriyie Ankrah’s position should be scrapped. First of all, I don’t think there’s any reason why the state should be spending money on a presidential staffer playing that role,” he said.
He explained that if government wanted to create such a position, it should be transparent about it.
“If you want to secretly appoint a deputy minister or a minister for religious affairs, do it. But don’t hide it under a different cloth. We already have a Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs. If anything needs to be done, that ministry should have a desk or a unit to handle it,” he said.
Mr Aboagye further accused the NDC government of pretending to reduce the size of its administration while secretly creating ministerial-level roles under different titles.
“But if you have a whole presidential staffer in the calibre of Robo everywhere to be doing this and to be moving around with pastors and prophets all over the place, what is the use of the ministry, you know? And that’s the point we keep making about the NDC, pretending that they are reducing the number of ministers, but they are using covert ways to appoint so many people.
“Because if it’s a presidential staffer, as we hear it, then he’s at least at the level of a deputy minister. So you may as well just announce him as such… You have a Minister for Religious Affairs, so if you want to appoint another one, do it, don’t tell us you’ve cut down ministers and you’re appointing people at the same level of ministers to play roles that you could have done.”
Mr Aboagye also criticised the directive that religious leaders submit prophecies for review before making them public. He warned that state involvement in such a spiritual matter could lead to censorship and abuse.
“The Bible talks about testing of prophecies, but that is a spiritual exercise, not a governmental one. How do I trust that a politician reviewing prophecies will not censor what is said, especially when it concerns people in government?” he asked.
Citing scripture, Mr Aboagye noted that while the Bible itself warns against false prophets, it never mandates governments to control or vet prophecies.
“There’s actually a biblical danger in government trying to control prophecy. In history, some governments used prophets to push their own agenda. That is why this directive is unnecessary and even risky,” he cautioned.
He said that instead of state interference, the focus should be on education and responsible conduct by pastors and prophets.
“What we need to do is to use the systems in place to continuously educate these pastors and prophets so they will be a bit more responsible,” he suggested.
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