Rt Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey
President John Dramani Mahama, who is also the flagbearer of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), has apologised to the moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the church as a whole for the disparaging remarks some officials of his party made against him (the moderator) and the church.
He said it was unfortunate that the party he was leading could have such a serious stand-off or confrontation with the moderator of the church, Rt Rev Prof Emmanuel Martey and the whole congregation, stressing that the row with the church gave him sleepless nights.
According to him, the Presbyterian Church was his ‘mother’ church until he followed his wife to the Assemblies of God church where he was currently worshipping.
“I was baptized into the Presbyterian Church and started worshipping with them until marriage took me away to the Assemblies of God. So in terms of my Christian life, the Presbyterian Church gave birth to me and moulded me,” he said, adding that such disagreements would not help the unity of the country and could possibly also heighten political tension.
The president apologised when he graced the grand durbar to climax the Odwira festival of the chiefs and people of the Akuapem Traditional Area in the Eastern Region on Friday.
President Mahama did not agree with party members who claimed to be Presbyterians but had parted ways with the church because of the church’s stand on the creation of the 45 constituencies and asked them to reconcile with the church and go back and worship there.
The president might have taken that bold step to apologise on behalf of his party because probably he had intelligence that groups within the church and branches across the country were planning a series of protests against the NDC.
Last week, the Ashaiman branch of the church held a press conference to respond to the vituperations of Johnson Asiedu Nketia, General Secretary of the NDC.
DAILY GUIDE’s information indicated that this week, Young Adults Fellowship and Young People’s Guild of the church were going to hold a press conference to condemn the utterances of Johnson Asiedu Nketia against the Moderator of the church.
DAILY GUIDE’s intelligence also gathered that the President, realising the implications of the stand-off on his party’s fortunes in the elections, visited the official residence of the moderator at Osu with a young renowned man of God to plead on his party’s behalf, before rendering a public apology.
President Mahama also told the gathering that he had a very tight schedule as well as important engagements on Friday and initially delegated the vice president to undertake the task; but realizing the seriousness of the stand-off, he found time to grace the Akuapem Odwira festival to show his respect to the people of Akuapem.
DAILY GUIDE however learnt that the president had to make time to publicly apologize because the Akuapem area was predominantly a Presbyterian enclave and where the church started in Ghana; and so that decision to grace the occasion delayed the start of the durbar for about four hours.
From Thomas Fosu Jnr, Akropong-Akuapem
