In a country where religion is often worn on the sleeve and sometimes weaponised for political advantage, President John Dramani Mahama's words at the 10th Triennial Congress of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship in Accra yesterday deserve more than a passing news report.
They deserve reflection.
"My Christian faith is a source of strength and reflection.
As President, I've sworn duty to serve every Ghanaian, Christians of every denomination, Muslims, adherents of traditional religion, and even our citizens who profess no faith.
My responsibility as President demands fairness, respect, and equal concern for all."
With those measured words, the President restated a constitutional truth that is too often forgotten in the heat of our partisan and sectarian debates.
He admitted that his insistence on fairness to those of different faiths had, at times, led some Christian leaders to question his faith.
Ghana is not a secular state in the sense of being anti-religion.
The 1992 Constitution does not banish God from public life.
In fact, it begins with an acknowledgement of the Supreme Being.
What Article 21(1)(c) guarantees is freedom of religion.
What Article 17 forbids is discrimination based on religion.
What the Presidential Oath demands — as captured in Article 60 and the Second Schedule — is that the President bears true faith and allegiance to the Republic of Ghana and preserves, protects and defends the Constitution.
The President is president of all Ghanaians, not president of Christians. President Mahama was therefore not downgrading his faith when he spoke to his fellow Assemblies of God members.
He was elevating his office. He was drawing a crucial distinction that many leaders in Africa and beyond have failed to make — the distinction between personal piety and public duty.
A leader's faith can inform his values — honesty, compassion, integrity, service — but it must not determine who gets justice, who gets development, who gets appointed, or who gets protected.
He told the church that its greatest contribution to the nation is not lobbying for power, but cultivating honesty, compassion, responsible citizenship and peace, and maintaining the moral independence to speak truthfully about injustice and suffering.
That is a profound challenge to all religious bodies in Ghana — Christian, Muslim, and Traditional. Too often, religious leaders have become praise singers of the government when their member is in power and fierce critics when their member is out.
They have traded their prophetic voice for access to the Jubilee House.
Ghana's religious tolerance is indeed one of our most precious possessions.
It is not an accident. It is a deliberate product of how we have lived together. In the same compound in Tamale, you will find a Christian and a Muslim sharing one kitchen.
In the same family in Cape Coast, you will find a Methodist minister, a Catholic catechist, and a traditional priest.
Our funerals, our marriages, our naming ceremonies are often inter-faith without anyone making a show of it. But this tolerance cannot be taken for granted. Across West Africa, we have seen how quickly religious identity can be politicised and weaponised.
We have seen insurgents use religion to divide communities.
We have seen politicians use religion to mobilise votes.
Ghana has remained stable precisely because our leaders — from Jerry Rawlings to John Kufuor to John Atta Mills to Nana Akufo-Addo — have, at their best moments, insisted that the state belongs to all.
President Mahama's multi-faith family story is Ghana's story. It is the story of millions of Ghanaian families where blood is thicker than dogma.
The lesson we draw from his speech is twofold. First, for the President himself: The words must be matched with deeds. Fairness must be visible in appointments, in distribution of development projects, in how the state responds to religious conflicts, whether it is about hijab in schools, building of the National Cathedral, or land disputes involving traditional shrines.
Equal concern must not be just rhetoric.
Second, for religious leaders: They must defend the right of the President to be fair to all. It is troubling that, as the President disclosed, some Christian leaders have questioned his faith because he insisted on fairness to others.
That mindset — that a Christian leader must favour Christians — is un-Christian and un-Ghanaian.
The churches should celebrate a leader who refuses to discriminate, not doubt him.
At a time of global polarisation, where identity politics threatens to tear nations apart, Ghana needs leaders who can be deeply rooted in their own faith yet fully committed to the common good.
President Mahama's address in Accra was a timely affirmation of that model of leadership. His faith is his strength.
His oath is his duty. And Ghana's diversity remains our blessing.
