“The battle is the Lord’s” - a biblical quote as written in 1 Samuel 17: 47 appears to have become President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s favourite verse as he choruses it to conclude most of his speeches and while the country is faced with numerous challenges, including the outbreak of Coronavirus which has claimed many lives and affected the fortunes of the economy, he surrenders all to God with the utmost assurance of sweet relief.

The President, having attended the Installation and Enthronement ceremony of Rt. Rev Dr. Cyril Kobina Ben-Smith, as the 2nd Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Ghana, at Asante-Mampong, in the Ashanti Region on Saturday, 27th February 2021, went on his knees for the men of God present to say a word of prayer for him – “For the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails.”

In one of the photographs from the event shared on his Facebook page, President Akufo-Addo is seen kneeling down while the reverend ministers stretched forth their hands in prayer.

At the ceremony, the president broke his silence on the raging issue of same-sex intimate relations, declaring that his administration will never legalize same-sex marriage in the country.

“It will not be under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that same-sex marriage will be legalized in Ghana; it will never happen in my time as president,” he reiterated, having earlier posited same in an interview on foreign news media Al Jazeera in 2017.

In the last couple of days, the debate over same-sex marriage has been reignited after the opening of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQ+) office in Ghana.

The community centre which opened on January 31 in a ceremony attended by a delegation of the European Union and other foreign embassies was shut down after it was raided by security forces.