Political and communication analyst, Dr. Etse Sikanku has urged Ghanaians to see Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s comment on giving incentives to churches from a developmental perspective.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia speaking at Techiman in the Bono Region on Friday, May 10, 2024, stated that the church has done enormous to propel the development of the country.

He also added that he is not in favor of churches paying taxes and should rather be given some incentives.

“Unless you don’t understand the work the church has done. If you are looking at the buildings, the way they keep the society together, the universities, the hospitals, the schools, it is massive. It is just massive. Many churches have hundreds of schools. So I don’t see and I will not have a situation where we are taxing churches,” the Vice President stated.

However, the NPP’s flag bearer has backtracked on his comment adding that it was a joke.

Commenting on the matter on Morning Starr with Francis Abban, Mr. Sikanku stated that the Vice President was only emphasizing the immense contrition by the faith based organizations.  

“If you really want to look at it from the developmental perspective, and if you look at the audience reaction at that time, there was a certain applause and certain reaction to show that people were responding positively to what he said.

“Let’s look at the context, so I think that we should really think about it in more developmental and knowledge based perspective. I think there is enough evidence to show that the attention or the focus was on the progressive work,” Dr. Sikanku stated.

He continued: “There is reasonable evidence that there is enough work about the partnership the coordination and the contribution that local developmental stakeholders such as the church and faith-based organizations can achieve if we worked together in harmony. Irrespective of religious affiliation. Christians and Muslims to advance the course of this nation educationally, health wise.”

Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM