Agitations over national mosque and cathedral constructions needless: nation should rather be thankful

The sod cutting of the five thousand (5000) seater capacity National Cathedral of Ghana was done on March, 2017 and that of the fifteen thousand (15,000) seater capacity National Mosque was started in 1995. A Cathedral means a large Church.

The National Cathedral will be situated around the Ridge Roundabout, Accra and that of the National Mosque is being built at Kaokudi-Kanda, Accra. Aside an auditorium, the National Cathedral will contain Africa's first museum, art gallery, music school and baptistery while that of the National Mosque will contain a library, school and research complex. Both have National Development Committees.

The National Cathedral is to be built from funding from the Christain community in and out of Ghana while that of the National Mosque is being funded by Turkey and the Muslim Community in and out of Ghana. The National Cathedral has its architectural design done with building yet to kick start while the building of the National Mosque is about 85% complete.

Both will serve as sources of tourist attraction. There are National Mosques in most parts of the world such as Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan, while National Cathedrals can also be found in most parts of the world such United States of America (USA), Ivory Coast and United Kingdom (UK).

The Government of Ghana is neither funding the National Cathedral nor the National Mosque. The government under His Excellency Nana Addo is only providing a land free of encumbrance for the National Cathedral.

Encumbrance means burden, trouble or problem. The government under former President J.J Rawlings also provided a free land to the Chief Imam in 1995 as a replacement for a mosque the government under H.E Rawlings demolished to pave way for the construction of the Rawlings Park at Makola, Accra.

As a result of the above information, I find the uproar surrounding the National Cathedral and Mosque needless because individuals after legally acquiring their lands in Ghana freely build their churches, houses and mosques everywhere and everyday, and has not been the concern of any as far as it is not being funded with the tax payers' money, and so should be the same concern given to these national Cathedral and Mosque buildings because they are wholly being funded privately.

The Nation should rather be grateful to the initiators of both magnificent edifices which will create numerous direct and indirect jobs for the citizens of the country from the designing stages to construction stages through to the utilization stages. Also, by serving as tourist attraction, boost of commercial activities and others, they will directly and indirectly serve as source of revenue generation for the government.

Hhhmm, may God be praised always.

Member, Critical Thinkers International