NPP not using National Cathedral funds for 2020 campaign – Board of Trustees

It is not true that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dipped its hands into the coffers of the National Cathedral to bankroll its 2020 political campaign, Rev Victor Kusi Boateng, Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral has said.

He told Kwame Appiah Kubi on CTV’s Anopa Dwabre Mu show on Wednesday, 2 December 2020 that “the whole project is in the hands of the board of trustees and, so, how do you convince the eminent and accomplished board of trustees members, who have carved an image for themselves, to give the money meant for the cathedral to the NPP for campaigns?”

According to him, neither President Nana Akufo-Addo nor any member of the NPP is a signatory to the account of the National Cathedral, and, so, expressed amazement at the allegation.

“It is not true, it is not possible, it is absolutely false, and the construction of the cathedral has started”, he said to debunk claims that the site had been left idle and, thus, overgrown by weeds.

“You can go there to verify for yourself as to whether the site is overtaken by bushes or there is work going on there”, he challenged CTV.

The National Cathedral of Ghana is an interdenominational Christian church that is being built as part of the legacy to commemorate the country’s 60th anniversary.

It was proposed by the government in March 2017 and is expected to be a physical embodiment of national unity, harmony and spirituality.

The design for the cathedral was unveiled by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in March 2018. He said at the time that the construction of the cathedral was in fulfillment of a promise he made to God in the run-up to the general election in 2016.

The cathedral will have a 5,000-seater capacity with chapels, a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery, and a Bible museum. The site will also house a music school, an art gallery, and a museum dedicated to the Bible.

Construction work is expected to be completed within the next five years and is estimated to cost over $100 million.

A board of trustees to supervise its construction was inaugurated in March 2017 and was chaired by a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, Most Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi, who died a few months ago, with the Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, the Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, as Vice-Chairperson, and the Founder and General Overseer of Power Chapel Worldwide, Prophet Kusi Boateng, as Secretary.

It has a heavy representation of the heads of many churches, both orthodox and charismatic such as Apostle Opoku Onyinah, Rev. Joyce Aryee, Professor Cephas Amenyo, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. Offei Akrofi, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, Rev. Eastwood Anaba, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills, Pastor Mensa Otabil, Rev Dr Frimpong Manso and former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Prof. Emmanuel Martey.

Preparatory work for the project began in August last year with the pulling down of bungalows formerly occupied by nine Court of Appeal judges and judicial staff.

The demolition of the bungalows attracted criticism from many quarters and was objected to by a businessman, Mr Jonathan Holm, whose injunction application to the Supreme Court seeking to stop the bungalows from being razed down was dismissed.

Mr Holm had said it was unconstitutional for the government to use the land for the construction of a National Cathedral because the land was compulsorily acquired under Section 3 of the Public Lands Ordinance of 1876 (Cap. 134) from the Osu Stool by virtue of a Certificate of Title dated November 29, 1910, for residential purposes for public officers and had been used for the public purpose for which it was acquired and, therefore, the user could not change it to accommodate the cathedral which was not in the "public interest".