The Executive Director of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh has said that the construction of the controversial National Cathedral was not needed.
He said whiles contributing to a roundtable discussion organised by the Citizen’s Coalition on Thursday, December 15, 2022.
According to Mr. Henry Kwasi Prempeh, he described the project as not “sensible” looking at the current economic crises in the country.
“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.
He added that “when you are in 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.
“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, I think we have not quite done that.
“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.”
Mr. Prempeh therefore suggested that the site could be used for other purpose.
In recent times, there have been several calls on the government to suspend the contruction of the National Cathedral since it is of no importance to the nation.