I agree the state should fully fund the National Cathedral project — Mpraeso MP

The Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Opoku believes there is nothing wrong if the state is allowed to fully fund the construction of the National Cathedral.

Speaking on ‘the AM show’ on Joy News today, he noted that, a lot of people are already holding the wrong notion that the National Cathedral would be a place for only Christians to worship.

He noted that the National Cathedral will serve as a place where Ghanaians will converge for national events.

According to him, it is time for the state to accept the construction of the National Cathedral and fund it from state coffers.

“I agree with Agyapa Mercer that the state should solely fund the building of the Cathedral. The impression is being created that the Cathedral will be a place of worship where Christians can go every Sunday to worship God and this sort of propaganda has been put out there by our friends and I think that it’s unfortunate that elements within government have failed to communicate to Ghanaians what really this Cathedral will be used for. Today in our country, we lack a place where we could converge.

“We all know on the 7^th of January just after elections presidents are supposed to be sworn before parliament. For lack of space we have always yielded to the Independence Square where parliament will have to move from the precincts of parliaments to the Independence Square largely because of the number of persons who will be invited to observe proceedings,” he shared.

He continued, “When we have a state funeral, recently the Former Second Lady of Ghana’s funeral was held at the precinct of parliament. Just at the forecourt of the state house and clearly you could see that it was not a proper place to hold the funeral. Cathedrals worldwide; when you go to the UK, go to the US have served that purpose where national events, huge events are held. Today, if we are swearing in a President on January 7 and it rains what do we do? It means that the whole programme has to be called off. All I’m saying is that, the time is now for the state to have a National place of convergence and it is the more reason why I support that the state must as a matter of urgency accept the fact that the National Cathedral is of importance to us as a people and fund it from state coffers.”

The National Cathedral, a pledge by President Akufo-Addo to God should he win the 2016 election was registered as a private company, however documents revealed by Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa show that government has released GHS200 million and even more towards the construction of the National Cathedral.