The Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Calvary Temple, at Spintex, in Accra, Reverend Anthony Cudjoe says a Muslim can also lead Ghana.
According to him, God can use any person to build a nation without considering their religion or the wishes of men.
“Sometimes you hear Ghanaians saying, ‘We want a Christian leader,’ but listen, a Muslim can also lead this nation and Ghana could be better,” he said.
An excerpt from a sermon he delivered in his church has surfaced on the internet, two days after the founder of the Movement for Change, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, admonished Christians in Ghana to vote for their own.
In the video which has gone viral on social media, the former Trades and Industry minister, under the current Akufo-Addo government is seen and heard admonishing Christians to elect a Christian leader.
He was addressing congregants of the Church of Pentecost, Dr. Wyatt Assembly, over the weekend, where Mr. Kyerematen said “As a predominantly Christian nation, as Christians, it is our responsibility that we elect a Christian leader who is also a Christ-like leader.”
He continued, “We want a leader who has the vision to bring hope to the hopeless, but we also want a leader who will be a servant leader to serve the people and not to Lord over them.
“We also want a leader who has integrity. These were the characteristics of our Lord Jesus, who today is risen.”
CONTRARY VIEW
His pronouncement has since been met with condemnation, as critics say it did not inure to religious tolerance in a country that has enjoyed peaceful coexistence for several decades.
The Head Pastor at the ICGC Calvary Temple, Reverend Anthony Cudjoe, in his sermon, insists God can use anyone, regardless of their religion to develop the country.
“Sometimes you hear Ghanaians saying, ‘We want a Christian leader’, but listen, a Muslim can lead this nation and Ghana could be better. If God wants to do it, he will use anything. Why should God call Silas ‘my anointed’? he was not a Jew.
“Silas was from Persia, those kind of people who controlled Israel, but it got to this man’s turn and God used him to restore everything to Israel, and God said ‘I’m not even going to use any king who will save us, but Silas is my anointed; he is my chosen one’,” he stated.
The video appears to be from an old sermon, supposedly in relation to the long-held assumption that the NPP, for instance, was not going to elect Dr. Bawumia, a Muslim, to lead the party.
However, the Alan Kyerematen comments over last weekend triggered the re-emergence of the Rev. Cudjoe’s sermon, as though he was directly responding to the independent presidential candidate.
VISITS
The flag bearer of the ruling NPP, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is noted for his religious tolerance and cohesion, a move he has used his office as the vice president to champion forcefully.
On the day his contender, Alan Kyerematen, who is a Christian, stood in the church to make those comments , Dr. Bawumia, a Muslim, had visited a church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ with them.
On the same day, Dr. Bawumia visited two churches in Greater Accra, where he reminded the congregation that things happen not by the might of men, but by the spirit, as the Bible says.
