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After government appointees and communicators have, on countless occasions, vilified and tongue-lashed Churches and men of God who spoke against corruption in the country, President John Dramani Mahama has now backtracked and is running to the Churches to help fight corruption.

In a speech read on his behalf, the President urged religious leaders in the country to lead the campaign against corruption in their various churches and mosques in order to curb the menace.

He conceded that the government alone could not win the fight against corruption except with the support of all stakeholders, particularly the religious institutions.

He also expressed the need for education on the dangerous effects of corruption to enlighten the citizenry and eventually help win the war against the canker.

The President’s speech was read by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Johnny Osei Kofi, at the ordination of Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu as the new Catholic Bishop of the Ho Diocese in the Volta Region over the weekend.

He said, “We need to educate every citizen of Ghana using the churches, using the mosques, using every other spiritual facility and arena, to let us be aware that we have a role to play.

“We must be talking to our church members working as teachers, working as policemen, working as tax people, working as politicians about their responsibility to the country,” Mahama said.

He lamented that “corruption has become quite a serious problem. The government is ready to do everything about it, but very often the information that you need to gather and prosecute may not be as clear as that.”