Akufo-Addo lists seven benefits of National Cathedral

Amid the recent brouhaha surrounding the construction of the National Cathedral, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has outlined seven core benefits that Ghana stands to benefit from once the project is completed.

The president at an event on July 26, 2022, reiterated his stance that the Cathedral will complete a missing link in Ghana’s spiritual architecture – especially for a Christian-dominated nation.

The benefits cuts across the infrastructural through to the spiritual dimensions of the edifice that he says must be built through the concerted efforts of the faithful in Ghana, across Africa and the world.

Below are the seven benefits:

1. Provide an inter-denominational space for worship

2. Will place God at the centre of nation-building efforts

3. Provide an official venue of worship for state occasions in a predominantly Christian nation

4. Serve as a fulcrum for propagating the Christian faith

5. Unify the Christian Community

6. Serve as a tribute to religious liberty

7. More importantly, it will serve as our collective thanksgiving to the Almighty for the blessings he has bestowed on our nation, sparing us the ravages of civil war that have bedevilled the histories of virtually all our neighbours and the outbreaks of mass epidemics.

Akufo-Addo also justified the need for the Cathedral stating that there was no better time than now to undertake the project.

He cited how similar edifices across the world have taken in some cases decades to erect but added that in the case of Ghana it had to be built in a short time frame.

He was addressing the symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar at the Christ the King Church in Accra.

“These three initiatives; the pathbreaking design, the bible museum of Africa and the biblical gardens of Africa will help to ensure the relevance of the project to the church in Africa,” he said.

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa in the past few weeks has published documentation relative to payments the government has purportedly made towards the Cathedral project.

His disclosures have included two tranches of releases which he claims were done without Parliamentary approval even though the government has insisted that all payments were above board.

Ablakwa also pointed out governance breaches – so alleged – relative to the registration of the Cathedral and issues to do with its Board of Trustees.

But the Board has called on Ghanaians to continue to support the project despite the political back and forth. Meanwhile, work has stalled at the premises reportedly due to a lack of funds.