By Ruth Serwaa Asare
Missionary and governance specialist Dr Palgrave Boakye-Danquah has backed calls for tighter control of prophetic declarations in Ghana, warning that many self-styled pastors are deceiving the public.
Speaking on GBC’s FOCUS programme on Wednesday, 13 August 2025, during a discussion on “Should the state regulate prophecy?”, Dr Boakye-Danquah said: “We have a lot of charlatans in this country that are not called by God, and the men of God know it.”
His remarks come a week after the 6 August Z-9 helicopter crash, which triggered a wave of prophecies from pastors and prophets claiming to have foreseen the tragedy. The controversy prompted Ghana’s Presidential Envoy for Interfaith and Ecumenical Relations to urge religious leaders to submit certain prophecies, particularly those predicting deaths or national disasters, for review before making them public.
Dr Boakye-Danquah described the moment as a “God-given opportunity” for major Christian bodies, including the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the Christian Council of Ghana, the National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches, and the Independent Prophets Association, to “clean up the mess” in the religious space.
“We don’t have a guided or regulatory system. Anyone can turn on a camera, claim to speak the mind of God, and go unchecked. God is a God of order, and we must restore that order,” he said, adding that the church must lead the clean-up before government intervention becomes inevitable.
