A National Democratic Congress youth activist in the Savanna Region, Miftah Mahama, has advised Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to stop provoking Ghanaians with his serial jokes and concentrate on fixing the nation's ailing economy.

During his campaign tour of the Northeast Region, the Vice President, in an attempt to clarify his earlier statement that churches should not be taxed, stated, "At that point, I was joking and I said people are talking about taxing churches. I don't believe that, and we would not tax churches, because if you look at the work the churches have done, then I was joking, that maybe we should have actually paid them for the work they did not really try to tax them."

Reacting to the Vice President's comment in an interview, Miftah Mahama downplayed Dr Bawumia's seriousness in campaigning to lead Ghana as the next President.

According to Miftah, the prevailing economic mess is making it extremely hard for the unemployed Ghanaian youth to survive, the reason Dr Bawumia should get serious.

He cautioned politicians against campaigning on religious lines, arguing that Ghana is a secular state.

"Rather than policy-focused campaigns, the recent development of political communication on religious lines is worrying."

"The crucial argument is how this style of political communication affects the citizens’ decisions which define the democratic process."