Charles Onuawonto Bissue, the parliamentary candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Essikado-Ketan constituency, has explained why the National Cathedral project has stalled.
The legislator hopeful says the external shocks that caused global economic downturn constituted to the suspension of the edifice to make room for more pressing needs for Ghanaians.
According to Mr. Bissue, more health facilities were needed to subdue the ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic at the time, the reason government needed to focus on the Agenda 111 at the expense of the National Cathedral.
He has been telling Roland Walker on the Big Issue on TV3’s New Day that President Akufo-Addo couldn’t have done better than refocusing the project on the Agenda 111 when it became paramount for health institutions to be constructed to cater for patients.
“However, once we are going along, we realized that there was turbulence in the economy; Covid, Russian Ukraine war, so the economies across the world got affected so it will cascade down to the building of the hospital.
“So, the President made the right decision and said at the time that we did not anticipate Covid, in Italy 40,000 people died where they have the best health care arguably compared to us, they have better healthcare than us but 40,000 people [died]. I don’t think we had 40,000 people dying here because of the way we managed it. And then he (President Akufo-Addo) comes out with a decision that we are going to build 111 hospitals and I believe this year some of it will be commissioned. So, in our history, we haven’t actually done something like that.
“So, if we try to touch on the emotions of Ghanaians…, what are the best practices elsewhere? Talking about priorities, now the cathedral hasn’t been built yet because there was turbulence in our economy. That’s the wise thing to do, you hold on, look at other things and then later on come back to it,” he disclosed.
He also explained why government needed to commit some funds into it despite the initial pledge of soliciting for funds abroad to executive the project.
“If such a huge project is coming into the country and eventually it’s going to benefit all of us; boost tourism amongst others, then we will all go for it so if the government comes in to support, not the entire project, I don’t see any problem with that,” he maintained.
His comments come on the back a comment made by John Dramani Mahama, flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) questioning the priority of the project at the expense of the needs of Ghanaian students.
Speaking at the Wa Technical Institute as part of his ‘Building Ghana Tour’, John Mahama bemoaned the wastage of almost US$60 million on the project which has given Ghanaians nothing but a hole.
“So far US$58 million of public money has been spent just to dig a deep hole and you have to ask yourself, is it justified in this day and age when children do not have desks in schools, when children do not have textbooks for five years, even though we’ve come out with a new curriculum, because we say there is no money and you say we should use $450 million dollars to build a cathedral, even God will be angry with us,” he lamented Friday, March 08, 2024.
John Mahama’s sentiments had been reiterated on TV3’s New Day by Godwin Edudzi Tamakloe, the Director of Legal Affairs for the National Democratic Congress.
