A SECULAR GHANA AND SUPPORT FOR ALL RELIGIONS AFTER BOMFEH V ATTORNEY GENERAL

ES Nwauche

 

A little over four years ago, the Ghanaian Supreme Court delivered its judgment in James Kwabena Bomfeh v Attorney General (Suit No J1/14/2017. Judgment delivered on 23rd January 2019). In that action, a citizen of Ghana brought an action for a declaration that:

(a)  the Government of Ghana does not possess the legal authority to grant or allocate any public land, and consequently the decision of the Government of Ghana to allocate or grant 6.323 Ha of the public lands of Ghana for the construction of the Ghana National Cathedral to serve as Ghana’s Mother Church, is unconstitutional;

 

(b)  it is unconstitutional for the Republic of Ghana through its organs of Government, ministries, agencies, departments and/or authorized representatives to purposely aid, endorse, sponsor, support, offer preferential governmental promotion of, and/or be excessively entangled in, any religion or religious practice;

 

(c)   the setting up of a Hajj Board by the Government of the Republic of Ghana for the purpose of coordinating, supporting and/or aiding Ghanaian Muslims to embark on the Muslim religious pilgrimage to Mecca (“ Hajj’), being one of the five pillars of the religion of Islam, together with the financial support the Government of Ghana provides to Muslims embarking on the Hajj, amounts to the Government of Ghana purposely aiding, endorsing, supporting and/or offering preferential governmental promotion of, and/or excessive entanglement of the Republic of Ghana with, a religion or religious practice, and thus unconstitutional;

 

The Supreme Court affirmed Ghana’s peculiar secular status and secularism as allowing and encouraging State recognition and accommodation of religion and religious identity. The Court further noted that the Ghanaian constitution does not explicitly prohibit the Government from supporting, assisting, or cooperating with religious groups.”  Since a critical feature of secularism is the equal treatment of all religions, a Court that declares that the State can cooperate, support and assist religion raises the question of the manner in which the State deals with all religions. Equality of treatment of all religions poses challenges for multi-religious States like Ghana, where the 2010 Population and Housing Census gives the statistics of religious affiliation in Ghana as Christianity (71.2 percent); Islam (17.6 percent),  traditional religion (5.2 percent); no religious affiliations (5.2%) and smaller religious groups [Eckankar, Hinduism, Buddhism and Bahai Faith] (0.8 percent). The appropriate question is the nature of support offered to Ghanaian minority religions. Such support should be substantive and positive. The absence of compulsion by legislation on Ghanaians to be faithful to one religion does not entirely satisfy the obligation of equality of all religions in a liberal democratic State. Ghana needs to offer concrete assistance, support, and cooperation to all religions.  This is difficult but entirely feasible. Equality may not be in commensurable terms. For example, the Government of Ghana may support the establishment of worship places for minority religions in accordance with their rituals and spatial practices.  

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