The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has clarified his statement about providing incentives to churches to undertake developmental projects when he gets the nod to lead the nation.
Dr. Bawumia, in a meeting with the clergy as part of his nationwide tour, explained that his statement may have been taken out of context.
He underscored that his statement was made within the context of the church and other faith-based institutions’ contribution to the country’s development.
He cited schools, hospitals, and other essential facilities and stated that the institutions should be cushioned to do more for the country.
“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built. Look at the number of universities the churches have built and faith-based organizations have built. Look at the number of people the churches and faith-based organizations take care of on a daily basis. Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools, universities and hospitals the churches have built disappear. They just disappear. How would Ghana be like? Ghana will collapse. Isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation because there will be chaos.
“So at that point I was joking and I said, oh…people are talking about taxing churches. I don’t believe, and we will not tax churches. Because if you look at the work the churches have done, then I was joking then, maybe we should have actually paid them for what they did, not really trying to tax them. But I wasn’t really saying we should pay churches, no. I am saying that we should give incentives to churches to do more,” he noted.
However, Dr. Bawumia claims the public misconstrued the statement made at the meeting with the clergy in the Bono East region last Friday, May 10.
In clarifying his earlier comments, the NPP’s flagbearer said, “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.
“We will rather want to give churches incentives to support what the government is doing. I want us to be partners in the way that the development partners are with us. You are our domestic development partners, and we will give you incentives to do more”.