Speaker: Using work hours for church affront to the law
The Speaker of Parliament,
Professor Mike Oquaye, has cautioned against using working hours to go to
church in the name of worshiping God for salvation and deliverance and such act
by the citizenry is an affront to the laws of the land, Holy Bible and Quran.
He explained that “the laws of the land
mandates the citizenry to work from 8am to 5pm and using such hours to do any
other thing apart from working for your employer is not the best of practices”.
Prof Oquaye, who cautioned when he commented on
calls by some Members of Parliament (MPs) for the House to pass legislation
that will regulate activities of one-man churches, upon pleas by MPs, referred
matter to joint committees on Youth, Sports and Culture and Constitutional,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for consideration and report to the Plenary and
also directed the committees to consult widely and work in cooperation with
both Majority and Minority Leaders of the House.
According to the Speaker, “this is an important
national issue, we cannot have constitution, operate outside its parameters, in
an ostrich fashion pretend as if nothing is going on, if they have to make declarations,
fulfill obligations to society as provided by law, if they have to file returns
as constitution duly provides, they should ensure such issues have been
provided.
“Committee of such nature must seriously consider our development difficulties notwithstanding any political party but treat it as a national issue make recommendations, the citizenry use hours of work, 8am to 5pm not to worship anywhere, we are expected to work, it will be dishonest someone employs and use hours paid you to go somewhere else.
“Whether it is church or otherwise, there are times to worship Saturdays, Sundays evenings but definitely not working hours otherwise we cannot develop as a people,
we live in a state where we all know pastors running one-man churches keep people in camps purportedly to heal them, when they get worse they rush them to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital,” Prof Oquaye lamented. –kasapafmonline.com
