Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has emphasized the need for Ghanaians to continue to peacefully co-exist and to consolidate efforts at doing so.
He believes Ghana’s high ranking in continental and global peace rankings was a testament to the impact of people of different faiths tolerating one another over the decades.
Bawumia, while speaking at the launch of the 175th-anniversary celebrations of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church Ghana (EPCG) in Accra on Sunday, July 31, 2022, cited himself as a testament to how different faiths can co-exist.
He disclosed growing up with a Methodist mother and being an active part of a Methodist Boys’ grouping.
All that changed when his mother, then Susana Mariama, reverted to Islam – the faith her husband practised.
“We live in a society where a mother and some children could be Christians and a father and some children could be Muslims. As a young boy at Sakasaka primary school in Tamale, I was born to a Methodist mother (then Susana Mariama) and a Muslim father.
“Growing up I was an active member of the Methodist Boys’ Brigade until my mum changed to Islam. I suspect I am the only Muslim member of the Boys’ Brigade. Till date, out of my seventeen siblings, nine are Christians and eight are Muslims. That is the beauty of the religious acceptance in Ghana,” he revealed.
In September 2021, Bawumia lost his mother, Hajia Mariama Bawumia. She passed on in Accra at 81 and was buried later beside her husband in Kperiga, near Walewale in the Northeast Region.