Francess Assiam, former CEO of Ghana Gas Cylinder Company, has stated that despite the resignation of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams and Reverend Eastwood Anaba from the Board of Trustees, they cannot be absolved from the allegations associated with the National Cathedral.
According to the NPP communicator, the two Men of God should have been able to foresee the coming impediment and forewarned the President about it to circumvent the brouhaha surrounding the sacred national monument.
Thus, their inability to prevent the situation robes them in with the failures of the government.
“I am saying, I blame the Christian faith-based organizations. I am not interested in who said what and who debunked because at the very beginning, they all had the opportunity to come up with likely impediments. They fast, sleep, dream, and prophecies come to them in abundance. So why didn’t they pray, fast, and look up unto the lord to give them direction? Today they are behaving like we politicians [are the problem].”
Francess Assiam
She emphasized that all of the members of the board are liable, particularly the Archbishop, for the standstill on the project.
“Objectively, I blame all of them. The president had the vision when he was the leader of the opposition. I am talking about NPP in opposition, he had a vision, and who was the first person he consulted? It was His Eminence the Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams.”
Francess Assiam
She also recalled how the vision was first relayed to His Eminence Archbishop Duncan-Williams who embraced and championed it alongside the president and other esteemed Men of God. She chastised them for not warning the president.
“My point is that, in the first place, you should immediately have told the projector of the idea that, chief, we agree with you but… What advice came from these eminent Men of God? We have not been told that they went against it. Let’s be objective. I listened to the Archbishop when they went to Jubilee’s House telling the story of how the President brought his dream and vision to him. He said it is a good thing and he was so happy. When they were inaugurating the Board of Trustees, I remember very well, nobody ever said they told him not to do it. They were happy.
“When they started the planning, who said to the government; please don’t involve the state. When the state said it was giving seed money, and other people were murmuring, they never said anything until much later.”
Francess Assiam
In addition, she cited the example of the Muslim Community in Ghana and how they built the National Mosque without the state’s significant involvement.
“If I was contacted as a Woman of God, I would have said let us craft this thing within the domain of the Christian fraternity because when the National Mosque at Kawukudi was being built, the land may be for the Government of Ghana, but because it is a faith-worth goal or project, that emphasizes the faith of millions of people of the Islamic faith, did you hear any brouhaha? They got a land, whatever it was, I believe the Turkish government came in, and through mobilization from other faith-based sister organizations and built it.”
Francess Assiam
She believes that the churches could undertake the project without the state’s interference.
“Christians and Muslims, who are the majority? Now, look at the cathedrals of the huge churches, universities, schools, and business enterprises that most of these churches have put up. I am not saying it is bad.”
Francess Assiam
She expressed he opinion on the state-church partnership on the building, reiterating that the church ought not to have permitted the state’s involvement at all.
“We defended the position of the cathedral and said we Christians must build it. Some of us were very insisting that Ghanaians must come together and build it because you can do something and it will become a national monument. We even posited that the Westminster abbey and so on where kings and queens are buried is a tourist attraction and all of that, getting millions of pounds for the UK.”
“Look at the Accra International Conference Center that the late former president Rawlings put up. The Accra International Conference Center was done by state money and is managed by the state. That was an edifice of national dimension. That is distinct from a faith-based project.”
Francess Assiam
Also, Oye Bampoe Addo chastising the government on the project, added that “we have a cathedral of lies, a symbol of corruption, which is very ironic for a cathedral, and a stained cathedral.”
She cited a plethora of scandals that have rocked the idea of the National Cathedral that should have long ago prompted the church leaders to what they were dealing with.
“This has been the biggest presidential scandal”, she added.
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