Let’s play a game. If you ask 100 Ghanaians to list their five topmost priorities in the country, how many of them do you believe, in this current climate, would list construction of a national cathedral amongst their top ten uses of taxpayer money?
If this issue was not raised by government no one would even be thinking about it, and yet here we are, our official budget statement for the year makes provision for the National Cathedral Ghanaians were explicitly told would not involve taxpayer money.
Rev. Solomon Nortey A senior pastor with the Methodist Church in Ghana and the author of an upcoming book on Faith and Common Sense, Rev Solomon Nortey, has given his two cents on the issue of the National Cathedral. Rev Nortey, in his piece, has called on Ghanaians to actually start acting like Christians and not simply think constructing a monument to God which might end up being situated in filth can bring blessings down on us.
Artistic impression of the yet-to-be built National Cathedral The needless decision to construct a National Cathedral with a huge donation of prime Accra real estate has just gotten more expensive for the people of Ghana even though everyone keeps assuring us that it’s not government that is paying for the cathedral. According to documents sighted by myjoyonline, the piece of land being cleared by government to host the building has on it a private IT firm who stands to make mega losses if moved at such short notice and are thus calling on government to pay millions of dollars before they surrender their land.
Artistic impression of the yet-to-be built National Cathedral
The needless decision to construct a National Cathedral with a huge donation of prime Accra real estate has just gotten more expensive for the people of Ghana even though everyone keeps assuring us that it’s not government that is paying for the cathedral.
According to documents sighted by myjoyonline, the piece of land being cleared by government to host the building has on it a private IT firm who stands to make mega losses if moved at such short notice and are thus calling on government to pay millions of dollars before they surrender their land.
Artistic impression of the yet-to-be built National Cathedral The plan to establish a National Cathedral is moving forward at full speed despite staunch public opposition. So far, even a lot of ordinary Ghanaians who are Christians are standing against the initiative, and seemingly those who want it are privileged a$$e$ like Joe Mettle or those affiliated with the church who are unlikely to be feeling the hardship causing the ordinary Ghanaian to kick against this excess.
Nobody can tell us the use of a national cathedral other than to give thanks to God for blessings the ordinary Ghanaian can’t feel but Joe Mettle claims it is just as important as anything else. The gospel singer justifies the construction of a national cathedral in a country where people are left to die in the streets like dogs because of lack of hospital beds by claiming a cathedral is just as important as any other piece of infrastructure.
Nobody can tell us the use of a national cathedral other than to give thanks to God for blessings the ordinary Ghanaian can’t feel but Joe Mettle claims it is just as important as anything else.
The gospel singer justifies the construction of a national cathedral in a country where people are left to die in the streets like dogs because of lack of hospital beds by claiming a cathedral is just as important as any other piece of infrastructure.
Nana Kwaku Bonsam With the debate over the construction of a National Cathedral now thrown into the dustbin as the President already wholeheartedly supports its construction, others are also now calling for help from government to construct their religious monument. Nana Kwaku Bonsam, in an interview with Kasapa Fm, said the idol worshippers in the land also need their own land to construct a national shrine.
Artistic impression of the yet-to-be-built National Cathedral Last week, Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri, the Founding Editor of GhanaCelebrities.Com noted in an article that the Government of Ghana’s direct or indirect role play in the building of a national cathedral goes against the wall of separation of the State and the Church. He said: “The wall between the State and the church, defined by the constitution of Ghana is thick but the incumbent NPP government does not seem to give a hoot—and the government is jumping the wall to help the church with our supposed limited State resources.” Since the government of Ghana is keen on getting married to the church, James Kwabena Bomfeh, a former Youth Organiser of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), aka Kabila has filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court to restrain the government from ‘building’ a national cathedral. James who was earlier in court on the same issue wants an interlocutory injunction to restrain the construction of the controversial 5,000-seater Cathedral.
A former Presidential Staffer under John Mahama’s administration and current Member of Parliament for the people of Ningo Prampram, Sam George, has vehemently stated on national television that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s soon to be built National Cathedral is a misplaced priority. The MP was one of the panelists on Saturdays edition of TV3’s Newday program. Sam George said that he does not see any reason why we are spending tax payers money on an institution that has refused to pay taxes for the development of this country since Adam.
Eagle Prophet The Christians are out in force to fight for the construction of the National Cathedral which obviously is one of the things our country needs at this moment in time. And as usual they are going for the fear factor – claiming that constructing the Cathedral is the will of God and anyone who fights it would incur the wrath of omnipotent father.
Alhassan Suhuyini Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan S. Suhuyini, has posited that the government must think of constructing a national mosque and shrine to top it all off after the construction of a national cathedral. The NDC MP said it’s only fair that those edifices be set up since government is hell bent on the National Cathedral project.
To nobody’s shock, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is concentrating a lot on the soon to be built National Cathedral which he says is to thank God for all he has done for the country. Akufo-Addo conveniently does not mention all that God has not done for the country – the hardships and suffering people go through every single day.
Chris-Vincent Agyapong Febiri Ghana has more churches than schools and hospitals combined. Let’s grant that there is a God, heaven and hell are real—just for the sake of this conversation.