National Cathedral: Professor Kwasi Prempeh Describes Akufo-Addo Project As “Vanity Project”

• A new wave of criticisms against the national cathedral project is brewing, this time triggered by Ghana's cash-strapped economy
• Prof H Kwasi Prempeh has said it does not make sense for the president and his government to continue expending money on the project
• He told participants of an event organised by Citizen’s Coalition that the cathedral is merely a "vanity project"

The criticisms against the National Cathedral project are re-emerging strongly following Ghana's currently stressed economy and general hardship.

After abating momentarily, concerns about Ghana's precarious debt situation that has triggered an Extended Credit Facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has brought the controversial project to the fore of public discourse once again.

Funds allocated to the project in the 2023 budget estimates presented by the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta seems to have been the cause of the re-emergence of the controversy.

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Now, the Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) Prof Henry Kwasi Prempeh has launched his own attack on the project that has been thumbed down by many Ghanaians.

In his view, this is the worse time for Ghana to be considering the project he describes as senseless.

“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,” he said.

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According a Joy News report, he made the comments during roundtable discussion organised by a civil society orgainsation.

He told participants at the Citizen’s Coalition programme on Thursday, December 15, government can redeem itself by suspending the project immediately.

Prof Prempeh becomes to the umpteenth voice appealing to the president to suspend the project that started as a personal pledge to honour God for the 2016 election victory.

Work Suspended On Controversial Cathedral Project Over Lack Of Funds

Meanwhile, YEN.com.gh reported in a separate story in August 2022 that work on the National Cathedral project was suspended indefinitely because funds had run out.

Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah disclosed that workers working on the projected have been suspended.

The overseer of the project explained that unless the public supports the project, it would not be completed.

Source: YEN.com.gh