Nat’l Cathedral: Build a shrine for Okomfo Anokye too – Economist to gov't

An economist, Mr Yaw Modey, has described as useless expenditure government's decision to spend tax money on the construction of a National Cathedral in fulfilment of the president's personal pledge to God.

Speaking on the midday news on Accra100.5FM on Monday, 13 June 2022, Mr Modey said, "If the government is bent on building a cathedral just to glorify a foreign God, then it is just right for a shrine to be built for Okomfo Anokye who is a Ghanaian".

Mr Modey made this comment in reaction to the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta's comment that there is nothing wrong if the government spends tax money building a cathedral.

According to him, building a cathedral at this time in Ghana's economic situation is useless.

"I'm a Christian, and I think that building a cathedral is useless and will not serve the interest of the country," he stated.

He stressed that "the late Okomfo Anokye is from our stock; it is also prudent for a shrine worth that amount to be built in his honour if this is the way the government wants to spend in these economic crises." "Is this way to cut expenditure"? He quizzed.

He posited that the amount of money being used on the cathedral could have been used to make the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), National Health Insurance Scheme, and School Feeding Programme, among other social intervention programmes, better in the country.

He noted that economists in the country expect some fiscal discipline on the part of the government and not gross dissipation of the remaining state resources.

Just a few days ago, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta wondered if using state funds to build the national cathedral that President Nana Akufo-Addo promised to put up for God if he won the presidency was too much.

"At any point in time when these buildings were built in Europe, was it ever the right time? How do we fund it will become the question", he asked in an interview on state-owned GTV on Sunday, 12 June 2022.

"Is the executive mindful of the current situation? We shouldn't snuff out our religiousness or spirituality because we are poor", he noted.

"The Lord will understand if we put our widow's mite in there", Mr Ofori-Atta noted.

"That question being asked is that: Are we spending money from state coffers? Is that too much to do because we are politicising it? Do we really want to stop it? That is going to be my question."

He said: "As a minister of finance, we are looking at resources and how much we put in there at every point in time that is sensible and, so, as we speak, we have spent less than one-thousandth of our expenditure on that."

"I am very confident of raising revenue to be able to fund this, and then, more importantly, if I want to look into the economics of it, I truly see an overwhelming capacity that this will pay off.

"Typically, I am looking at an internal rate of return, so we should put this in mind", the president's cousin noted.

The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, had alleged that on 29 October 2020, a few weeks before the national elections, Mr Ofori-Atta, acting on a request by President Akufo-Addo's Chief of Staff, authorised the release of GHS142,762,500.00 for national cathedral planned activities.

According to Mr Ablakwa, contrary to legal requirements, the government concealed "this ginormous GHS142.7 million from Parliament as they deliberately failed to disclose this item as part of their expenditure returns of 2020 during the 2021 budget consideration in Parliament."

This 2020 cathedral expenditure, the opposition MP noted, was also kept away from the Auditor-General in his 2020 audit.

In a Facebook post, the lawmaker said so far, adding this latest exposé to his previous leaks, the Akufo-Addo government has spent GHS199,832,603.00 of taxpayer funds on a cathedral which was originally presented to Ghanaians as a personal pledge to God that will not be executed with taxpayer funds.

Digging into the tonnes of documents, Mr Ablakwa stated that many more millions had been paid illegally, which "we shall continue to put out to the glory of God and in the overall national interest. On a further scarier note, the figures we are currently reviewing do not look like anything near a seed capital."

He said this GHS200 million cathedral gate has turned out to be the biggest presidential scandal in Ghana's entire history.

He described as terribly shocking how President Akufo-Addo and his men could engage in "such ungodly, illegal and insensitive conduct."

In the name of a cathedral project, Mr Ablakwa again alleged that a corrupt slush fund had been created to siphon taxpayer funds from the suffering masses on the blind side of Parliament, the Auditor-General, CSOs and other accountability systems.

"Instructively, these illegal diversions took place when the government was engaged in massive vote-buying to win the 2020 elections; it was also the period COVID-19 had peaked and placed enormous pressure on our health delivery as many Ghanaians died, and yet President Akufo-Addo claimed he couldn't find the resources to fulfil his Agenda 111 pledge of building new hospitals," he stated.