Vice President Dr. Bawumia and the Ashanti Regional Chief Imam in a handshake as Prophet Jamson looks on
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has told Ghanaians that when he is elected to lead the country he would be a president for all Ghanaians irrespective of their faith or ethnicity.
He repeated this pledge to the multitude of delegations from various ethnic groupings from the Zongo communities and inner cities who called on him at his residence in Accra to congratulate and express solidarity with him ahead of the 2024 general elections.
He told his guests that before announcing his readiness to vie for the flagbearership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he consulted both Christian and Islamic clergymen to pray for him.
“They did and God listened to their prayers,” he said. The next battle is the 2024 elections, which he said requires the prayers of the clergymen in Christianity and Islam, as they did before.
According to the Vice President, he is seeking the presidency to serve the needs of his compatriots regardless of their ethnic, faith or political lineages.
“I am in politics not to seek my personal interests but to serve my compatriots by ensuring equitable distribution of developments. I am for the prevalence of unity in the country. This unity I would continue to work for because I dislike disunity,” he said.
Dr. Bawumia pointed at the restlessness in neighbouring countries, situations which he added Ghana has been spared thanks to God.
Unity and interfaith harmony are two critical factors he said he would continue to champion when given the nod to lead the country.
First to call on him was a high-notched delegation from Kumasi and Tamale led by the Ashanti Regional Chief Imam, Sheikh Abdul Mumin Harun.
The delegation prayed for him and demanded of him to continue to prop interfaith harmony and cooperation as he has always done.
The Ashanti Regional Chief Imam took exception to the recent rhetoric from the Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam George, which many have condemned as constituting a series of hate speeches and not inuring to faith tolerance in the country.
The revered Ashanti Regional Chief Imam, in his speech, said that the Prophet of Islam was as much a cleric as he was a politician. This, he said, was evidenced in his asking Muslim men to marry Christian women.
He recalled the annual Xmas visit to the church in Bethlehem by Mahmoud Abass, the Palestinian leader to underscore the cordial relationship between Christians and Muslims, a reality which debunks the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP’s hate speech.
The Vice President’s gesture of visiting churches to foster interfaith harmony in the country is worthy of commendation, the imam said.
He promised to sermonise about the auspiciousness of the election of the Vice President, a man whose election was a positive response from God, and asked him to continue to visit churches to foster interfaith harmony.
The Acting Sarkin Zongo of the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Ibrahim, expressed the gratitude of Kumasi Muslims for renovating the Kumasi Central Mosque.
Alhaji Ibrahim, who is the Moshie Chief of the Ashanti Region, said when he saw N’Akoa Prophet Nazareth Ansah Jamson, Leader and Founder of the Israel King of Jews Church with the Vice President, he remembered the story about the friendship that existed between the Prophet of Islam and Christians, which as he put it was a playback of how the Prophet ensured interfaith harmony.
The Ashanti Regional delegation asked Prophet Jamson, who joined them during the visit, to express their gratitude on their behalf to the Vice President for the facelift he gave the Kumasi Central Mosque.
The Christian clergyman, whose presence among his Muslim counterparts was a heartwarming spectacle, could not have highlighted better the interfaith harmony existing among the two Abrahamic faiths in the country.
Both of them partook in the prayers said at the venue as they belonged to the same faith. This without doubt shamed those who have embarked upon a project of sowing a seed of discord among the two main faiths in the country.
Other Muslim delegations which called on the Vice President and expressed solidarity with him were the Tems or Kotokolis, the Kanuris or Beriberi not forgetting others from the Central, Western, Bono and Volta regions.
Another delegation from the Wangaras led by their chief in Kintampo also visited with remarks of solidarity for the Vice President.
The Ghana Supporters Union also visited and presented the Vice President with a trophy.
Supporting the Vice President to host the delegations was the Coordinator of the Zongo and Inner Cities Secretariat at the Presidency who is also the Chairman of the Ghana Hajj Board, Ben Abdallah Banda, Deputy Minister of Transport and MP for the Gushegu Constituency, Alhassan Tampuli, former Northern Regional Minister, Said Salifu, the General Secretary of the NPP, Justin Frimpong Kodua and Alhaji Rauf, the Registrar of the Pharmacy Council.
By A.R. Gomda