Even God will be angry if we build a Cathedral with $450m - John Mahama

The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress, John Dramani Mahama, has slammed the government for the $58 million spent to dig just the foundation of the National Cathedral.

According to him, it is unimaginable that such an amount of money is used for such a project when the country is facing many challenges in the education sector.

“So far, $58 million of public funds have been spent just to dig a deep hole, and we ask ourselves is it justified in this day and age when children do not have desks in school, when for five years we’ve not been able to provide our basic schools with textbooks even though we’ve come up with a new curriculum because we say there is no money?

“But you say we should use $450 million to build a cathedral; even God will be angry with us,” he stated.

The former president also questioned the rationale behind the project, which he said is based on the personal conviction of the president, Nana Akufo-Addo, after he pledged to God that he would build a cathedral for him if he won the 2016 elections.

John Mahama stated that the project could not be funded by the public, as it was not a national priority or a reflection of the religious diversity of the country.

“It is one person’s conviction. The president said that he pledged to God that if he won the elections, he would build a cathedral for him. So, it is his personal pledge, and if he wants to build it, he must gather people who support conviction to build it. We were told that the public was not going to be used for the cathedral. But eventually, we found that the minister of finance was releasing public taxes. Our taxes are paid not only by Christians but also by Muslims, so we can't use public funds, including the funds of people of other denominations, to build for Christians alone and there, is an important issue we must look at,” he added.

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