There is a dangerous difference between faith and arrogance, between prophecy and political theatre, and between spiritual conviction and the reckless assumption that one has been handed the keys to another man's destiny.

The statement attributed to Prophet Owusu Bempah crosses that line spectacularly.

“As long as I am alive, Bawumia will never become president.”

Really?

Since when did the lifespan of one mortal determine the political destiny of another? Since when did Ghana's electoral future become conditional upon whether a particular preacher is breathing?

No human being knows tomorrow with scientific certainty. No pastor knows it. No politician knows it. No professor knows it. No pollster knows it. Even the world's most sophisticated forecasting systems deal in probabilities, not certainties.

Elections are determined by millions of individual decisions, changing economic conditions, candidates, campaigns, alliances, events and circumstances that have not yet occurred.

Then there is destiny, for those who believe in it.

If destiny exists, surely its defining characteristic is that it is beyond the command of ordinary men. A person may predict it. He may pray about it. He may even believe he has received a revelation concerning it. But to boast that “as long as I am alive” another human being cannot attain a particular position sounds less like submission to divine authority and more like an extraordinary declaration of personal power.

And then comes the threat to “curse” people who vote differently.

That is where the whole performance descends from pomposity into absurdity.

A democracy cannot be held hostage by supernatural intimidation. The ballot belongs to the citizen. A Ghanaian must be free to vote for Bawumia, against Bawumia, or for anybody else without fearing the alleged spiritual artillery of a preacher.

If a prophecy is genuinely divine, it requires neither threats nor curses to make it happen.

History is littered with confident men who announced impossibilities shortly before those impossibilities happened. Human beings are notoriously poor custodians of tomorrow. That is precisely why humility remains one of wisdom's greatest virtues.

You may dislike Bawumia. Campaign against him. Criticise his record. Challenge his ideas. Defeat him at the ballot box.

But declaring yourself the human barricade standing between another man and his destiny is not power.

It is hot air dressed in religious authority.

Tomorrow has embarrassed bigger men.

And 2028 will arrive whether anyone curses it or not.