Vitus Azeem, Executive Director of GII
Anti-corruption crusader, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has waded into the scandal rocking the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over its decision to “facilitate” 200 clergymen to Israel on a pilgrimage.
Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, the co-ordinator of the trip, who also doubles as the Minister of Youth and Sports, pegs the total cost of the trip at US$600,000 (GHC 1.2 million) to be provided by “philanthropists”, an explanation that has generated substantial public outcry.
The GII has waded into the raging controversy, charging the government to abort the plans to sponsor the Israeli trip, “GII strongly calls on the government to abort the plans to sponsor the unsolicited pilgrimage of Christian religious leaders to Israel and other religious groups to their various holy grounds,” stated GII, the local representative of global anti-corruption group, Transparency International.
Furthermore, the anti-corruption crusader has challenged the beneficiary churches to turn down the juicy offer, “GII calls on all the Christian groups that have received this unsolicited offer to reject it outright, if they are really Christians that think of the poor and marginalised in society. Those who can afford to go on a pilgrimage should go at their own expense and not tap on the limited resources of the state to fulfil their religious obligations.”
“Much as GII agrees that Christians are Ghanaians and are entitled to a fair share of the nation’s resources, GII believes that there are better and more effective ways of distributing national resources than offering unsolicited funded pilgrimages to religious groups,” it stated.
The GII in the Monday statement challenged the NDC government to set its priorities right and focus on pertinent issues affecting the country, rather than “trying to score unnecessary political points” among the Christian community.
“The NDC government should be looking at providing solutions to the myriad of problems facing the nation such as the energy crisis and water situation which has rendered life miserable for many Ghanaians including Christians and Muslims rather than trying to score unnecessary political points where none is needed or has been asked for,” stated the anti-corruption group.
On February 15, 2013 Mr Afriyie-Ankrah wrote to all Christian bodies to nominate at least 10 members each from their fold for the holy trip. The letter was inexplicably written on the letter head of the State Protocol Office even though Mr Afriyie-Ankrah had no jurisdiction over the State Protocol Office.
The letter has the reference number SPO.C/09 and signed by Mr Afriyie-Ankrah.
Faceless Philanthropists
In a statement released by Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah over the weekend, in a bid to justify the plans for the trip, he explained that government finances was in no way going to be disbursed in the expenditure, saying the funds were going to be provided by philanthropists.
GII is doubtful about the veracity of the philanthropist explanation saying it was “suspicious”, “The government should offer the nation an explanation as to the source of the sponsorship as alleged by the Minister of Youth and Sports in his letter written to the intended beneficiaries. The volume of the resources involved should not be an issue of debate. These religious pilgrimages should not be funded by the state,” GII stated.
Rejections
Incidentally, the bulk of the Christian bodies that the invitations were addressed to had rejected government’s juicy offer as they thought the timing was misguided.
The bodies include; the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the National Catholic Secretariat, the Christian Council and the National Association of Charismatic Churches (NACC)-Headed by Arch-Bishop Nicholas Duncan Williams.
Assemblies of God Reacts
Meanwhile, the Assemblies of God Church , where President John Dramani Mahama and his wife Lordina Mahama worship, has also rejected the offer and states in no uncertain terms that it is not part of the trip.
Reacting to reports that some pastors from Assemblies of God were spotted boarding flights to Israel on an advance party, the Church stated, “We seek to put on record that, as far as the office is concerned, no pastor in the organisation has made any government-sponsored trip to Israel. No official correspondence has gone on, no official list has been released, and no travel permission has been granted to any pastor for such a trip.”
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