Editorial: When a Pastor Calls God’s Gift of Tongues “Nonsense” - A Dangerous Precedent.

A language may die if there are no people to speak it. Ghana is home to over 80 indigenous languages, with Twi spoken by nearly half of the population as either a first or second language. Nevertheless, Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh, a respected televangelist, has declared that establishing a radio or TV station in Accra that broadcasts in Twi is “absolute nonsense.” This statement, captured in an interview with UTV over the weekend, is not merely an offhand opinion. It is a reckless provocation that dismisses the linguistic identity of millions of Ghanaians and threatens the fragile threads of national cohesion.

I firmly and unreservedly declare: Rev. Dr. Tetteh’s comment is divisive, elitist, and dangerous. By labeling the use of Twi -- a language spoken by the Akan ethnic group and understood across all regions - as “nonsense,” he directly insults the heritage, dignity, and daily reality of countless citizens. Such rhetoric, coming from a man of God, does not stay within church walls. It trickles down, emboldening ethnic chauvinism, marginalizing non-English speakers, and planting seeds of resentment among Ghana’s diverse communities. The negative effect on citizenry is already visible in heated social media debates where Twi speakers feel publicly shamed, and non-Twi speakers feel licensed to mock other local languages. This is not the fruit of unity but of division.

History teaches a grim lesson: hate speech and ethnic ridicule are never harmless. In Rwanda, the Hutu‑powered radio station RTLM repeatedly called Tutsi “cockroaches” and dismissed their language and culture as subhuman. Those broadcasts directly fuelled the 1994 genocide, killing over 800,000 people in 100 days. In Côte d’Ivoire, the concept of “Ivoirité”—a political ideology that denigrated northern Muslims and their languages—led to a civil war that claimed over 3,000 lives. Closer to home, Kenya’s 2007‑2008 post‑election violence saw neighbours turn on neighbours after radio hosts and politicians used ethnic slurs; 1,500 died and 600,000 were displaced.

Rev. Dr. Tetteh’s words may seem mild compared to those horrors, but the trajectory is identical: first you mock a people’s tongue, then you mock the people. In a nation where chieftaincy disputes and political allegiances already follow ethnic lines, a pastor calling a major Ghanaian language “nonsense” is a lit match near dry grass. Urgent action is needed – not legal censorship, but public rebuke from the Christian Council, the National Peace Council, and fellow clergy. Silence from religious leaders will be interpreted as endorsement.

There are those who contend that Rev. Dr. Tetteh had no intention of hurting Twi speakers and was only supporting and advancing Ga. After all, Ga is the native language with which he's used to, so promoting it might seem practical. However, this defence crumbles under scrutiny. Promoting Ga does not imply undermining any indigenous language. Referring to a language as "absolute nonsense" is an insult rather than a constructive suggestion for national unity. Furthermore, the world’s most stable multilingual nations (Switzerland, South Africa, India) thrive precisely because they respect all languages, not because they mock them. A pastor who cannot distinguish between advocacy and abuse has lost his moral compass.

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Tetteh should remember Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” His tongue has just served a dish of division. As a man of the "Clergy", he is called to be a healer, not a divider; a builder of bridges, not a thrower of stones. I call on him to retract his statement publicly, apologize to every Ghanaian who speaks Twi, and spend a day praying in that “nonsense” language. For in that language, mothers pray, farmers bargain, chiefs arbitrate, and children learn that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. No language of the heart is ever nonsense and no man of God should ever say it is.