A cathedral for the dead

For the past two months or so, the construction of the National Cathedral has been a topical issue on the lips of most Ghanaians. It has mostly dominated conversations on the airwaves and social media. The government has constantly jumped to the defense of the multi-million cedi project. As expected, every government will go the full length to defend its policy no matter how unpopular it may seem.

The government in its first estimation said the total cost of the project will be $100m of which the churches in Ghana will raise most of the amount and the government will cover the rest. Later in August 2021, the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, Prophet Victor Kusi Boateng said due to further extensions in the project, its cost has shot up to about $200m. in the past few months, the project is now valued at around $400m. This has left many wondering.

The President in Several of his public speeches has said the building of the cathedral is a promise he made to God before winning the 2016 elections as then-candidate Akufo Addo and will continue with its construction despite the public resentment. In his words “we will build the cathedral by all means”.

The posture of the government on this controversial project is an unflinching one which makes me wonder what is it to gain. Usually, before a government will have a firm posture on a policy of that sort then it's sure its positives outweigh the opportunity cost.

Apart from the government position that the edifice will boost the tourism industry and provide a place for gathering of the Christian community to pray for the nation, I can barely see any tangible reason the cathedral is preferred over the pressing socio-economic challenges that have compounded the country.

Economic Crisis of Ghana
The country is faced with one of the worst economic challenges if not the worst and requires money to sustain most sectors of the economy. With soaring inflation of 54.1% ending December 2022 and a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 90% the government can do more than spend the little left in the national coffers on the National Cathedral.

The cost of living in Ghana has tripled if not quadrupled. Transport fares are at its highest in a very long while, food inflation is on the horizon, all domestic tariffs have been upwardly adjusted, and the cost of doing business is at its highest, with a 27% interest rate and the perpetual depreciation of the cedi.

The layman will say people are barely surviving because there is a lot of hunger in town. According to the WFP, up to 50 million people in 45 countries are at the right edge of famine and risk being tipped over without support. We can argue that Ghana is not part of the 45 listed countries by the WFP but we can't deny the risk of starvation of thousands of people in the country.

Ghana’s food safety index has declined from 78th in 2016 to 83rd in 2022 among 113 countries according to data from the Economic Intelligence Unit. This goes to say we are not in a comfortable position when it comes to food security. But the steerers of the economic vehicle rather deem it fit to spend about $400m on a project that is not necessary under the circumstances.

The 2021 Auditor-General's report showed that the government has already spent about $142m on the construction of the National Cathedral. The figure is reported to have moved up to about $200m. Yet, the Cathedral has not seen the completion of its foundation. The government has already spent half of the budget on the project without even raising the foundation.

In recent weeks, the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral has come under serious public scrutiny due to revelations made MP for North Tongu Constituency, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwah. He has accused the Secretary of the Trustee, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng of foul play and conflict of interest in the award of a contract under the Cathedral. I will however not delve much into the allegations because they are yet to be substantiated.

Nevertheless, the whole project smokes a lot of questions around it.

The cry of Atigakome
On January 25, 2023, the whole country was thrown into shock and mourning over the avoidable death of 8 pupils from Atigakome who drown in the volta lake on their way to school in a nearby community. The students, numbered 20 were traveling by boat on the volta lake to attend school in a nearby community because their community did not have a school. Sadly, their boat capsized and 8 kids lost their lives in the process.

The whole incident speaks magnitudes of how impoverished and sidelined some communities in Ghana are. Children in some rural communities travel long hours and are under the harshest conditions to attend school. Others lack basic school facilities to learn.

There are hundreds of villages in Ghana where their children go through the same ordeal and even worse than what those of Atigakome go through. In pursuit of their basic educational rights, these children are thrown to their mercy.

Let me borrow the words of Award-winning Sports journalist Saddick Adams who tweeted immediately after news of the incident breakout. “For teenagers to use canoe, on deep waters twice a day, without live jackets, all because they education but there is no educational facility within safe reach. And there’s someone in the same country who has stolen money enough to build 50 schools being begged to return it”.

Let’s take out his conclusion part and replace it with the government’s incision of spending money that can build hundreds of schools to build a church building. It’s absurd. Isn’t it?

Some will argue that a country cannot finish all the developmental projects or achieve total economic development before engaging in some projects and rightly so. But under the current economic crisis and global shrinking of economies, it’s more than necessary to spend on what is absolutely necessary. The country is bereaved of resources and we can't afford to spend the little left in the national coffers on things that are not needed.

I am not sure a child or parent from Atigakome and communities alike will be crying for a National Cathedral. Their first cry will be how to get food on the table and get their kids to attend school, the basics of life.

The cry of the parents of the deceased 8 children won’t be that if there was a National Cathedral their kids will be alive but rather if there was a school in their community or a better means of transport, their children won’t have passed away.

The parents won't wake up thinking that the National will have saved their kids from the tragic incident. The Cathedral won't even come into their minds. However, the government that controls the purse of the country chooses the Cathedral over these various important developmental issues in the country.

In essence, the government prioritizes building a church over saving the lives of thousands of other children like those from Atigakome. The government is choosing a church building of which many already exists over the lives of millions of Ghanaians. They might as well build a cathedral for the dead because many more people will die due to economic circumstances than those the cathedral will save if any.

Samuel Nyigmabo, a level 300 student at the Ghana Institute of Journalism