Akufo-Addo sings new tune on why Ghana needs a National Cathedral

President Nana Addo Danqua Akufo-Addo has reviewed his defence of why Ghanaians need to support the building of the controversial National Cathedral amid growing opposition from the public.

This time, the president's reason for building the national cathedral is no longer his personal gratitude to God for helping him win the 2016 elections to become president, as has been widely propagated by promoters of the edifice, but rather to thank God for sparing Ghana from the ravages of civil war, as have been witnessed by most of our neighbors in the subregion.

Speaking at the centenary celebration of the Ga Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at the Black Star Square in Accra, on December 18, President Akufo-Addo said the cathedral, when built, will help Ghana thank God for "sparing us the ravages of civil war that have bedevilled the histories of virtually all our neighbours and the outbreak of deadly mass epidemics, but also as a rallying point for the entire Christian community of Ghana, which represents seventy-plus percent of the population."

This is a remarkable departure from what the president said at the launch of the project on December 29, 2018: "...the building of the National Cathedral is to serve as a gesture of thanksgiving to God for his blessings, favour, grace and mercies on our nation, and to give me an opportunity to redeem a pledge I made to Him before I became President.

"It will provide us with an avenue to call the nation to prayer, to worship, to celebrate, and to mourn. It will house a Bible Museum and will be an iconic infrastructure for national, regional and international pilgrimage and tourism. It will create jobs and serve as a catalyst for technology and skills transfer into our country," President Akufo-Addo stressed.

Meanwhile, Parliament has put on hold its approval for the cathedral project pending explanations on how previous expenditures were disbursed.

According to Tamale Central MP, Murtala Mohammed, who spoke to Joy News on December 13, "What the Committee decided was that we cannot just approve this GH₵80 million; we must know how the other GH₵339 million was spent. What did it constitute?

"The GH₵80 million you want us to approve, how did it find space in the budget line of the Ministry of Tourism when the Minister and the directors could not speak to the questions we were asking? What constitutes the GH₵80 million, they should give us a breakdown."

President Nana Addo Danqua Akufo-Addo's government has insisted on building a befitting National Cathedral for the republic at a time when people are dealing with excruciating hardship amid rising costs of living, a weakened economy, and high debt-to-GDP exposure.

Many Ghanaians have spoken against the timing of the project, especially when the Finance Minister is at the IMF begging for 3 billion dollars to put the economy back on the path of recovery while announcing various levels of haircuts on investments and suspending the servicing of parts of the nation's foreign debt.