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There have been moments, since the inauguration of the board of trustees of the National Cathedral, when I have felt a strong prompting to call any of the board members to find out how many times they have collectively sought the face of God on the progress of the project; how often they have been on prayer retreats, collectively.
Lawmaker Okudzeto Ablakwa’s bombs led me to re-read Nehemiah. How did he deal with the opposition of Geshem, Sambalat and Tobias?
Who has been supplying Ablakwa with all the mud he slings at some key personalities associated with the Cathedral? Did the board satisfy itself, collectively, that all that the MP has been alleging is false? Having satisfied themselves, did the Board of Trustees ever attempt a sit-down with the MP?
Did all the board members agree with the President over the choice of site for the project? In the first place, did the choice of site ever bother any of them – including having to pull down historically significant buildings, paying hefty compensation for owners of the properties etc? Did any one of them attempt to reason it out with the President? This was critical because it was one of the nagging sources of opposition by many who felt that the enterprise was a drain.
As senior men and women (actually only one woman) of God, revered for their closeness to God, perceived as deep thinkers, as the masses’ counsellors, it is sad – perhaps strange – that those minor issues over which Otabil, Dag Heward-Mills and now Duncan Williams and Eastwood Anaba resigned could not be resolved, in the name of Jesus.
True or false, the perception for Ghanaians, over the past year, has been that such a holy project is mired in corruption. So I ask, among the revered board members, were the allegations probed? Were they satisfied, 100%, about the innocence of the embattled member?
What about the news that the President and his Finance Minister were attempting to smuggle figures into the national budget to get Parliamentary approval? The people say the fact that it is God’s project does not mean He approves of all methods to bring it about.
I believe the National Cathedral project would not have suffered the unprecedented level of opposition we have witnessed in this country if Akufo Addo had not presented it as a personal pledge to God. Even a totally non-partisan Ghanaian like me told myself that ‘personal’ pledges to God cannot be state-budget funded. Even the Washington Cathedral of America was totally privately funded.
Having so presented it to the people of Ghana as a personal dream, the Minority naturally feared it was going to inure to the political fortunes of the NPP.
Has all hope evaporated? Without state budget support, I doubt where the project is going to find the hundreds of millions of cedis needed for its completion before the end of Akufo Addo’s tenure.
If, from now on, the cathedral is to be built by Christians, the fear is real that resignations by (so far) clergymen from the neo-pentecostal (charismatic) persuasion will take away a chunk of financial backing by Christians of that hue. Will Archbishop Nich, Bishop Dag, Pastor Otabil and Pastor Eastwood ever stand in their pulpits to appeal for funds the way we know charismatics go about their fund-raising, religious acrobatics and all?
But all of the above is not so fatal to the project if God’s hand is in it. In that case, it will not be might or power, but by His Spirit. God has his remnants. If the rest of the churches feel led, the Church of Pentecost, with its 25,694 assemblies in 151 countries, with a population of close to four million worldwide, the Catholic Church, over three million members in Ghana, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican churches, not to mention the two well-populated Apostolic sisters, should be able to use the Nehemiah methods to get GHc100 a month from their congregations over a period of one year.
These statistics, however, do not factor in a very disturbing variable, namely politics. The Christian challenge is that a sizable chunk of their numbers belong to political parties whose leaders have expressed opposition to the project.
Christianity in Ghana is going through the saddest phase in its existence. I find it hard to believe that mighty men of God, whose word is one (integrity) and are known or believed to have moral clout, cannot agree on the truth over auditing.
I share the sentiments of Ghanaians: times are hard. Not only that; the year ahead, 2024, is an election year. Is that the reason for abandoning the project? Communication is key. A massive press conference, followed by explanations from the pulpit, should make Ghanaians appreciate that we are not abandoning the Cathedral project; we are only retreating tactically to advance.
