A sermon by Archbishop Nicholas Duncan‑Williams, founder and leader of Action Chapel International, has resurfaced following the growing concern over the rise of insults in Ghana’s social media space.
In the resurfaced video, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan‑Williams condemned the increasing use of social media platforms to launch insulting remarks at political officials.
Duncan‑Williams warned that Ghana is building a society to silence the truth, noting that if one speaks, they will attack you on social media.
According to Archbishop Nicholas Duncan‑Williams, freedom of speech has become freedom of insults, where everybody has the freedom to talk nonsense.
Duncan-Williams in the video stated, “We are building a society to silence the truth, because if you speak, they will attack you on social media. So everybody is quiet because nobody wants to be insulted, and freedom of speech has become freedom of insults, where everybody has the freedom to talk nonsense.
But make no mistake: for every word you speak, there are implications; it’s just a matter of time. Don’t think you say anything on social media and expect to go free; you are joking; it will come back to bite you one day,” he said.
Archbishop Duncan-Williams further labelled the act as foolishness and prayed for such individuals to repent of their actions.
He added, “Let’s correct some of this foolishness in our society. Nobody takes responsibility; every time we insult politicians, we are all part of the politicians.
Say, Heavenly Father, through the blood of Jesus, we repent of hypocrisy and take full responsibility for how we handle one another; we repent of greed and selfishness, and stop shifting blame,” he said.
Duncan-Williams resurfaced sermon comes on the heels of President John Dramani Mahama’s saying he believes Ghana needs a broader conversation on how TikTok and other new media platforms should be regulated.
According to John Mahama, as a leader, he does not mind being insulted or vilified as he has crocodile skin.
He disclosed that the government could simply instruct the police not to arrest people over anything they say, but questioned whether that would reflect the position Ghanaians wanted to adopt.
Speaking at a town hall meeting with the Ghanaian community in New York on Friday, September 25, President Mahama stated, “There is a new term that I call information integrity. The media has become democratised. Anybody with a mobile phone can disseminate information. There is a new medium called TikTok. And it’s not only Ghana where people are wondering what to do to regulate TikTok. Because in all countries all over the world, we are wondering what to do to make sure that we have information integrity even with TikTok”.
“Anybody who has a phone just puts it in front of him and just says whatever he likes. Once they put it out, it has an algorithm that shares it,” he said.
He added, “As a leader, I don’t mind being insulted. I have been insulted, I was vilified, and I was voted out of office, so for me, this skin is a crocodile skin. So if you insult me, I don’t mind. You insult me, I don’t mind, and indeed, I am doing what I can for my country and my continent. I am doing what I can for Ghana and Africa’.
“Definitely, a lot of these arrests, I don’t even know about them. I also hear about them in the media. Some of them have been tracked and arrested and all that. And sometimes, it worries me, because sometimes the reason for which the person has been arrested, really, they say, is because he insulted me,” he said.
Mahama said the challenge was determining where legitimate freedom of expression ended and conduct that required intervention, saying, “I can tell the IGP, we can go to Cabinet and say, let anybody insult anybody. Let’s leave it free for all. Don’t arrest anybody for anything they say. We can do that. But is that what we want?”
“So, let’s all decide what we want to do. So, that we either find a way of regulating it or we say, when it comes to free expression, anybody can say whatever he wants,” he said.
He further disclosed that the question of regulating new media should not be determined by government alone.
Mahama added, “What we should do is for the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to bring all the stakeholders together and hold a workshop or a forum.
“Let’s all collectively take a decision on what we want to do with the new media. Should the police get involved, or shouldn’t they get involved? How do we regulate it? You come out and tell us,” he said.
Watch the video below:
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