The Role Of Religious Institutions In Governance In Africa: The Case Of The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference

ABSTRACT The focus of the study is to examine the role of religious institutions in governance in Africa using as a case study the Ghana Catholic Bishops‘ Conference and its interventions on governance issues in Ghana since the inauguration of the Fourth Republic. In all 35 documents were carefully examined. The documents include Communiqués, Pastoral letters, Joint statements and other special messages found in the archives of the GCBC at the National Catholic Secretariat in Accra. Each document was studied and its content analysed and then classified. To get the opinion of the general public on the activities of the GCBC in relations to governance issues in the country a survey of 60 respondents comprising 30 Catholics and 30 Non-Catholics, using the quota sampling method was undertaken. The survey instrument was questionnaire. The occupational, educational and age distribution of respondents were diverse, with a gender equation of 55.9% to 44.1% of male to female. The results of the study show that the GCBC has been very active in issues concerning governance in its interventions and pronouncements. Apart from health and education in which the Catholic Church in Ghana is a traditional stakeholder, top governance issues that got the attention of the GCBC are issues of peace and security, economic and neopatrimonialism, bribery and corruption, the environment, and ethnic harmony in descending order. Also the findings from the documents of the GCBC show that the GCBC was consistent in its interventions irrespective of the political party in power, thus showing no political preference or bias. Furthermore, the study found out that the primary method employed by the GCBC is denunciation and appeal to individual and collective conscience. In more recent times, however, the GCBC has moved from general denunciation to tackling specific cases and advocating alternative solutions.