The National Cathedral: What’s the way forward?

By Professor Jeffrey Haynes

Two months before December’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the national cathedral is back in the headlines. A Deloitte audit report on the financial activities of the National Cathedral project was presented at a recent meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Cathedral of Ghana and some church leaders. Following the meeting, Apostle Opoku Onyinah, former Chairman of the Church of Pentecost and Chairperson of the National Cathedral’s Board of Trustees, announced that the project would now resume after a period of inactivity.

The National Cathedral project was announced by President Akufo-Addo over seven years ago, in March 2017. The National Cathedral is a symbol of Ghana’s self-perception as a ‘Christian nation’, initially welcomed by many Ghanaians, including most church leaders. Following the president’s announcement, prominent politicians from the two main parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), agreed that the National Cathedral of Ghana was of great public significance and should be pursued with energy.

Expenditure

The National Cathedral was planned to be a ‘non-denominational Christian worship centre’, to be completed by June 2024. Things have not gone to plan. All that is accomplished so far is a large hole in the ground, ready to take the National Cathedral’s foundations. Ghana’s taxpayers have so far expended an estimated $58 million dollars on the National Cathedral project which, it is fair to say, has not progressed as President Akufo-Addo hoped. It is predicated that a further $450 million is required to complete construction. It is not clear where this money will come from. Critics complain that the predicted cost of the national cathedral is much too high, and that in the present bleak economic climate such money would be much better spent on development projects: health, education and infrastructure.

Presidential candidates’ views

What do the leading presidential candidates have to say about the National Cathedral? The NDC’s presidential candidate, Mr John Mahama, has vowed that, if elected, his next administration would launch an investigation and forensic audit into the National Cathedral project. The NPP’s presidential candidate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged to complete the National Cathedral project if elected president, referring to the significant amount of state funds already invested in its construction.

The National Cathedral is intended to be privately funded, and Dr Bawumia emphasises the importance of completing the project. He has stated that he would engage with stakeholders, including churches, to determine the best way forward and explore potential funding options.

The way forward?

President Akufo-Addo stands down in January, 2025, after two terms in office, and it is not realistic to expect significant progress on the National Cathedral before his successor takes over. The president’s stated aim was to complete the building of the National Cathedral during his presidency; this is now impossible, leaving the project as a problematic legacy for his successor.

What will the next president do to complete the project? If elected president, Mr Mahama is by no means certain to sanction completion of the National Cathedral. He has publicly stated his concerns about the escalating cost, perhaps involving further expenditure of state funds, which could be used elsewhere as Ghana seeks to address its poor economic position.

Dr Bawumia has stated that he would meet with stakeholders to work out the best way forward. The key issue is of course funding and over the last seven years, Ghana’s churches have not shown themselves willing to fund the construction of the National Cathedral. Why would thing be different now? Where would the required $450 million dollars come from?

What can we learn from the saga of the National Cathedral and what can be done in the future to ensure that projects of national importance can be completed on time and in budget? Critics complain that there is a lack of clarity about the National Cathedral, especially who would pay for it.

President Akufo-Addo announced the project as his personal thanks to God for allowing him to win the 2016 presidential elections after two failed attempts. It is of course not realistic to expect the president personally to come up with the millions of dollars to fund the National Cathedral’s construction nor is it appropriate to believe that Ghana’s tax payers should stump up the cost of President Akufo-Addo’s personal project.

The next president of Ghana faces a stark choice: Either cancel the project because of the difficulties of completing it, or continue to try to construct the National Cathedral in most unpropitious circumstances. Whoever takes the presidential hot seat after the election should learn the lessons of the last seven and a half years.

First, before undertaking projects of national importance requiring both state and private funding, the government must liaise consistently with stakeholders at all stages of the project to ensure that there is both sufficient support and that ordinary citizens are convinced that the project is good value for money.

A second lesson is that it is imperative to regularly update Ghanaians on a project’s problems and progress. Failure to do so produces an atmosphere of uncertainty which can be exploited by critics to cast doubt on a government’s wider credibility.