‘We’ll Have a Difficulty of Legislating Churches’ - Kweku Baako

The Managing Editor of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Kweku Baako Jnr says it will be difficult to legislate churches in Ghana.

According to him, "it’s going to be a tight rope to walk."

Parliament is set to investigate and prescribe regulations on church activities in Ghana.

This follows a directive from the Speaker, Rev Prof Aaron Michael Oquaye, to the joint committees of Youth, Sports and Culture and the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

The Speaker said: “Honourable members, we live in a state, where we all know that priests keep people in camps to heal them and when they get worse, they rush them to health facilities, yet the people cannot be held accountable for malpractices, what kind of unbridled liberty can that be? So, we may want to think whether we should also have some of these things clearly established so that when people are rushed in, in suspicious circumstances the law will apply accordingly. We expect these committees to work seriously as we receive total commitment from both sides of the house on this particular matter."

The Speaker said the Joint Committee must report back to the House in a month.

Kweku Baako who was speaking on Joy Newsfile Programme, Saturday, said: "I would love to see the draft or whatever decision the committee comes out with . . . instinctively I think we will have a difficulty of legislating . . . I have no problem helping to wage a campaign against these matters . . . because some of them are fraudulent; some of them kill the society and our spirit and it is our right within the constitution to launch a campaign against such people. I don’t have any problem with that indeed, I will join it, and I am not talking of just Christians even Islam.

According to him, "there is no doubt that we should be looking across at the religious divide.We’ve got to be very careful about how we go about it. It will be difficult to achieve a consensus because of the emotive element. When it comes to religion, sometimes it’s difficult."