Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Full Gospel Church International, Bishop Dr Samuel Noi Mensah, has said Ghana’s challenges require practical solutions, not prophetic declarations.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show on Monday, August 11, Bishop Dr Mensah said while he respects the government’s effort to manage the circulation of sensitive prophecies, he does not believe national development can be based on spiritual predictions.

“No nation has developed based on prophecies,” he stated. “Nations have developed by leaders who think and solve the problems of our society. If you look at China, Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai, they are not developed based on prophecies and prayers. The problems we have in our country are not spiritual. They are common-sense problems that need common-sense solutions that need critical thinking.”

He was responding to the recent call by Presidential Envoy Elvis Afriyie Ankrah for religious leaders to share sensitive prophecies of national nature with his office before making them public.

While expressing condolences over the helicopter crash that killed eight people last week, Bishop Dr Mensah warned against the government becoming too involved in the management of prophecies.

“I do appreciate what we are trying to do to manage the feelings of our people,” he said. “But government getting involved in the management of prophecies… we will probably get into a system where government cannot control this. Government’s function is to provide leadership and solve the problems of Africa. We shouldn’t mix what we claim as prophecies with the management of governance.”

Bishop Dr Mensah criticised what he described as a growing trend of prophets “taking advantage of the tragedy” to claim they predicted it. “How come all the prophets always spell doom for the country? They can’t see anything meaningful about our development and how we can move our country forward,” he questioned.

According to him, most of these prophets do not belong to established church bodies such as the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council of Ghana, or the National Association of Charismatic Churches.

“These established councils are well-trained in theology, and they know how to manage these things,” he explained. “Unfortunately, we have most of these prophets without good theological training, emerging from particular areas of the religion in the country, just looking for a name.”

He suggested that if church councils cannot regulate such practices, “government must step in to regulate some of these things,” citing Rwanda as an example of a country that “sanitised the system and flushed out unwanted religious activities to bring sanity.”

With regard to President John Mahama, Bishop Dr Mensah advised him to remain focused. “The president has so much to deal with. He shouldn’t be bogged down with the so-called prophecies. Otherwise, people will take undue advantage, create a job for themselves, then go tell presidents all kinds of stories,” he said.

Read also: Presidential Envoy clarifies call for religious leaders to share sensitive prophecies

He noted that any prophecy of national importance should be handled privately. “If you have any prophecy or revelation that you think authorities must get to know, you will find a way to approach them and communicate that. But doing that in the public, throwing it in the public domain in the name of social media, that is not what the scriptures actually direct us to do.”

Bishop Dr Mensah is urging dialogue between government and church leaders. “Let’s give the church councils the opportunity to come out with a solution. If they can’t find solutions, then the government must come in,” he said.