President John Dramani Mahama Wednesday urged members of the clergy not to hesitate to speak up against his government when they believe things are not right.
The president, who was speaking to the Volta Region Christian Ecumenical Council of Churches, said his government will not seek to launch reprisal attacks against them if they spoke up against untoward happenings.
He maintained that the views clergymen expressed were going to be tolerated by the administration.
“I urge you that when things are not going well, you’ll be
able to raise your voices and draw our attention to it. The government I lead is not an intolerant government and if people speak and criticize us, we are not going to harass them and give them threatening phone calls,” Mr. Mahama said at his office in Accra.
The president described the faith leaders as the “conscience of the nation”.
He encouraged the church and the media to “speak freely,” saying that it was a positive instrument for correcting” ills in government.
President Mahama was seeking to strike a stark difference between himself and former President Nana Akufo-Addo whom he frequently accused of being intolerant to dissent during his time in office.
“No government in our recent history has demonstrated a lack of democratic temperament in dealing with issues of dissent and public criticism that the one headed by President Akufo-Addo,” Mr. Mahama had famously said at an event dubbed ‘Ghana At a Crossroads’ three years ago.
