My comment that churches should be paid was meant to be a joke – Bawumia
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has clarified that when he said his administration would encourage churches to take on more development projects instead of taxing them, he was kidding.
As part of his countrywide visit, the Vice President met with the clergy in the North East Region and clarified that his remarks might have been misinterpreted.
Dr. Bawumia clarified that his remarks were made in light of the fact that the church and other faith-based organizations have built schools, hospitals, and other vital infrastructure for the nation and should be given more support to carry out their more important tasks.
“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built. Look at the number of universities the churches have built and the 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.”
This allegedly misunderstood incentive comment was made last Friday, May 10, during a meeting with the Bono East region’s clergy.
At that meeting, the flagbearer of the NPP stated, “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.
Source: Adinkraradio.com
