Bawumia's religious comment unfortunate - Peace Council

The Chairman of the National Peace Council Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante has slammed the Vice Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia over his claim that the Flagstaff House is skewed in favour of Christians.

The Party’s running mate made the comment while addressing some New Patriotic Party supporters in the Sissala East district of the Upper West region.

“Another major issue that I want to bring to the attention of the people is that; if we look at the flagstaff house today, it does not reflect the people of Ghana in terms of religion.

“We are in this country living peacefully and nicely; Christians and Muslims. So we believe in the NPP that Christians and Muslims should work together and that is why whenever we pick a flagbearer as a Christian, we pick a Muslim as a vice.

“And when we come and pick a Muslim as a flagbearer, we will pick a Christian as a vice. So if, Insha Allah, Nana Akufo-Addo becomes president, he will swear with the Bible and enter the Flagstaff and I will swear with the Quran and enter the flagstaff House,” Dr. Bawumia said.

But Chairman of the National Peace Council has described the utterances from the NPP scribe as unfortunate and should not be encouraged.

“I consider the statement coming from Dr. Bawumia, a man I highly respect as most unfortunate,” Prof. Asante said Monday on Starr FM.

He added that “anybody who wants to play a religious card to solicit for votes may be doing a lot of damage and may be playing into the hands of religious extremists. I want to use this opportunity to appeal to our politicians not to play religious and ethnic cards because it doesn’t help our country, it rather divides and can create tension…I would humbly plead with to concentrate on issues.”