Building a cathedral cannot resurrect the economy

Fellow Ghanaians, the controversy surrounding the National Cathedral our President wants to build, come rain or shine, has undoubtedly cast an embarrassing aspersion on us as a people.

It has launched a scathing attack on the intellectual achievements of our dear nation and what we stand for, legally and religiously. And we seem to be losing grip on the

Read full articlehumanitarian front as well.

As a believing nation with religious DNA running through our veins in every village and every hamlet in this country, we all know that God Almighty accepts nothing but that which is pure and good.

Book of James Chapter 1 verse 2 speaks about the form of religion God almighty accepts: "pure and undefiled".

A similar message is mentioned in the Qur'an Chapter 2 verse 222, that God loves good things and accepts that which is good only.

Consequently, if you use money from armed robbery to be given as tithe in Church or Sadaqa in the Masjid, you have no reward for that act of kindness. You would likely attract punishment from God, especially if you killed lives to come by that money.

It is obvious that President Akufo-Addo and his deceptive government have now arrived at the conviction that building a National Cathedral to please God is what would revamp an economy that is sinking at a supersonic speed due to massive corruption and other Godforsaken activities.

The blame game of tabling their every governmental misadventure at the doorsteps of either past government, COVID-19, or Russia's invasion of Ukraine, has failed them spectacularly.

Now, he seems to want to blame God for the economic woes in the land or himself for his failure to deliver a campaign message he promised the Almighty God.

A Dagbani proverb says that if you send your child to the underworld, he would certainly return, only that you can't recognize him again because he would come back with one eye.

President Akufo Addo's child (deception) has come back, but he is frantically struggling to recognize him.

You see, when God Almighty, in His Godly wisdom, decided to deny then candidate Akufo Addo the Presidency in two elections, many unsuspecting and "unreasoning" Ghanaians supported him to beat the TomTom and war drums in this country. This is the output of his leadership.

I think we all are happy that the man has finally become President of Ghana because he has not only lowered the bar of leadership, if not thrown the bar away, he has retrogressed the country; it will only take light-years and with a miracle to undo the damage and mess he has created in the last 5-6 years.

He has mortgaged everything futuristic of this geographical expression called Ghana. Ghanaian youths simply have no future. Because of one man's greed!
Apology for the digression.

Nobody stands in the way of the President in his quest to appease the Almighty for a deceptive campaign promise. But this is certainly a private matter; it is between the President and his Maker; he made a fraudulent political transaction with

It is not bad to make a vow to thy Lord to do something for you so that, in return, you do something unusual as a form of service to Him. But the fulfilment of that vow is obligatory if God really does what you want for you. Several verses in the Bible admonish the individual to fulfil the vows they have made to God. For example, Deuteronomy 23:21 reads: "When you make a pledge to the Lord your God you must not HESITATE in fulfilling it, less He holds you accountable as a sinner."

This verse has vividly explained the desperation of our dear President, who mistook God almighty for an NPP voter in the Ashanti Region, and made a promise to God he never wanted to keep. Because obviously, he was never in any haste as the above biblical injunction dictates to honour that vow until his economy started to crumble beyond redemption.

Inasmuch as it is religiously binding on the President to honour this pledge, the record must be set straight that the Ghanaian taxpayers are not responsible for that. In fact, an attempt to further milk the struggling Ghanaian taxpayer to honour his pledge would be tantamount to abomination upon abomination.

In this case, the example of the President could be likened to a Sakawa boy who uses proceeds of cyber fraud money to fornicate. Double sins.

This is because the Eighth (8th) Commandment of the Ten Commandments dictates that "Thou shalt not take without permission". And this is a clear definition of stealing according to the Eighth Commandment.

To take our collective wealth to sort God out for your infractions is both legal and religious transgression, especially when there's no permission granted by citizens of Ghana.

Mind you, the President as the father of the nation does not give him the license to indiscriminately use public funds. He is only a trustee and custodian of our "commonwealth", and he is subject to remuneration. We pay him.

He can use his salary to build a cathedral in order to atone for his sins we never asked him to commit. And indeed, nobody asked His Excellency to make that vow to God neither did he consult Ghanaians about it, nor did Ghanaians ask him to run for the presidency of the country.

The President is only allowed to access the national treasury only in the interest of the public and not on private matters.

Therefore, he cannot use our resources to fulfil his vows and pledges we never asked him to make to God. It is a private matter, and he must use his own pocket money to do that.

Again, there's a serious legal and constitutional breach if the President is now bringing Christian denominational leaders to constitute a Board of Trustees of the Cathedral.

Is the President want to create a non-denominational State Church with this move?

Doesn't Article 56 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana tacitly abhor merging the State and the Church in Ghana?

For E. K. Quashiga (Quashiga 2001) surmises that Ghana is a secular state based on Article 56 of the 1992 Constitution.

If this is the case, Mr. President, "what has Athens to do with Jerusalem"?
Or what has Caesar to do with Jerusalem?

From the above, religiously and biblically, in particular, the Cathedral must not be constructed.

From the legal perspective, it is a no-no deal, and on humanitarian grounds, it is simply unacceptable to use meagre resources to build a house of God at a time people are starving to death.

This is a breach of a pledge to honour a pledge; it is unacceptable! You can't atone for sin by sinning.

Hence, the construction of the Cathedral would only aggravate and further deteriorate the economy if it is a sin that is holding it down and not the unspeakable corruption in this government.