President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the avalanche of criticisms hurled at him in connection with the National Cathedral project will not deter him from continuing with the construction of the edifice in the remaining two years of his last tenure. Expressing gratitude to the clergy for their support for the project, Mr Akufo-Addo said at a New Year church service at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, 10 January 2023: “It’s always [good] that we hear encouragement because a lot of the time, you hear harsh criticisms and I think to hear encouragement from very responsible members of the community is also something very heartwarming and encouraging”, adding: “It only reinforces our determination to see how we can do it. He said despite the fact that “times are difficult”, it is such situations that call for resolution, strength, and commitment. “And that is what, hopefully, I am showing and my government is showing with the determination that, come what may, we’ll work our way out of the difficulties we have in this country,” he said. He said the hard times are “not permanent, noting: “Ghana is a land with many possibilities, and even though we are caught up in a global conjuncture like many other countries, we can still find our way forward. And that’s my determination”. Mr Akufo-Addo said: “I am determined, come what may, I have two more years, that whatever the case, the National Cathedral will be at a very advanced stage before I leave office. I think it is important that we do it.” “All the reasons that I’ve given and continue to give that there will be critics and naysayers; I think we have to take it as they are all part of life. But it should not be a sign of discouragement to us to be able to go forward,” he added. A few weeks ago, President Akufo-Addo said his decision to build the cathedral to the glory of God has more supporters than the ‘Sanballats and Tobiahs’ against it. “Just like Sanballat and Tobiahs in the days of Nehemiah, there are some who do not share my views on the building of the National Cathedral”, the president said, adding: “I respect their right to differ but I am confident my decision [is backed] by the vast numbers of enthusiastic supporters of this project, whose spiritual dimension is limitless”. The president made the comment on Sunday, 18 December 2022, when he delivered an address at the centenary celebration of the Ga Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, held at the Black Star Square, Accra. The president noted that upon completion, the National Cathedral will serve not only as the country’s collective thanksgiving “to the Almighty for the blessings He has bestowed on our nation, sparing us the ravages of civil war that have bedevilled the histories of virtually all our neighbours, and the outbreak of deadly mass epidemics but also as a rallying point for the entire Christian community of Ghana, which represents seventy-plus per cent of the population.” Addressing the congregation, which included the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, the asked the Ga Presbytery, and, indeed, all Christians, to continue to pray for Ghana’s peace and unity, so the nation can move forward in unity. “I need the support of every Ghanaian, together with the prayers of the church, to help me and my government carry out our mandate successfully. Pray for me so that Almighty God will continue to give me wisdom, strength, courage and compassion to enable me to execute my duties as a good leader. With Him, all things are possible, as the battle is the Lord’s. For this, too, shall pass”, President Akufo-Addo said. Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, recently said the National Cathedral is not a sensible project to undertake in the midst of an economic crisis.In his view, the government could use the site for the project, for a more sensible venture. Speaking at a roundtable organised by the Citizen’s Coalition in Accra on Thursday, 15 December 2022, Professor Prempeh said making allocations for the cathedral in the 2023 budget beats his imagination. “When you are in a crisis, you can do exceptional things, I don’t see anything in the budget to suggest that this is a crisis and that this is being done as an emergency measure,” Professor Prempeh said. “This is not the time for vanity projects but we have preserved a vanity project in the form of the cathedral. I was expecting that this being a crisis period, we will reflect on that decision and say: ‘even if this is sensible to do at all’ – and I do not think so – that it will not be the appropriate period or we will change the idea to something else”. “There is a lot that we can still do with that site which can make sense”. “So, generally it is a missed opportunity in terms of seeing this as a crisis moment and seeing it as a moment to reset the button”, Prof Prempeh noted. “I think we have not quite done that”, he stressed. “It looks to me that it is purely an emergency thing targeted at the IMF to approve a loan, as opposed to something that is going deep into the structure and our governance,” Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh admonished in his assessment. Prof Prempeh is in good company with pressure group OccupyGhana which recently recommended that the government suspend all public expenditure on the National Cathedral considering that the country is going through an economic crisis. “Whatever arguments there might have been to support spending now-non-existent money on the proposed National Cathedral, have been eroded by the dire straits that the nation faces”, the group said in a statement. “Our current situation makes the continued commitment in the budget to spend GHS80m on the cathedral, look like a vanity project”,