Deputy Minister of Finance, John Kumah, has detailed why the building of a national cathedral remains the topmost agenda of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo despite opposition to it.
According to him, the building of the cathedral has strong Biblical backing as well as economic purposes.
Speaking on Citi TV’s ‘Point of View’ program on June 6, the Ejisu MP emphasized that there was enough justification for the project.
“There are several quotations in the Bible that God requires us to build Him of a place like Cathedral or a worship centre where we will honour Him and if anybody thinks that these quotations are in the Old Testament so they don’t really apply; if you read Luke 7:5 when Jesus was on the earth and busy doing miracles there was one Centurion whose servant was not well and the entire Jewish community and their elders went to petition Jesus that ‘this man loved our nation and has built us a synagogue.
“A synagogue is like a cathedral and so because of that, Jesus stopped everything he was doing to attend to this man. When you look into the Bible there is a strong basis why we have something like the synagogue or national cathedral [was built] in honour of God,” he stressed.
John Kumah also maintained that Ghana will begin to reap the benefit of investing in the national cathedral project after 15 years.
He again mentioned the project can serve as a reference for the government’s borrowing as it was an asset backed expenditure that the government through private sector partnership was embarking on.
“There is a strategic importance of why we must have this project is that it will promote religious tourism. We have done the projection and within 10-15 years Ghana will recover every penny that we will put into this project and even begin to make gains out of this.
“It is also an asset-backed expenditure. Many people have questioned why Ghana borrow money and we cant see what we have done with the money because most of the expenditures are spent on consumption,” Kumah said.
The building of the national cathedral has once again dominated headlines after it emerged that the government has released an amount of GH¢25 million for it.
North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has been raising concerns over it amidst the non-payment of allowances due to national service personnel and NABCo trainees.
“Considering the current debilitating economic crisis, why is the Akufo-Addo government releasing a colossal GH¢25 million for the National Cathedral project?”
“Shockingly, this is the same government claiming lack of funds to pay NABCo trainees, School feeding caterers, service personnel, the 3-year no-textbooks-syndrome,” he said.
It will be recalled that President Akufo-Addo in March 2017, proposed the construction of a National Cathedral which he said is in fulfilment of a promise he made to God before winning the 2016 general elections.