[Opinion] National Cathedral: When will Archbishop Palmer-Buckle also find conscience?

The sun went down that fateful Tuesday with the topical news in Ghana being issues around President Akufo-Addo’s visit to flood victims in Mepe in the Volta Region.

That was supposed to be it for the day at least. But before we knew it, breaking news came knocking. What was it this time around?

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, the Founder and General Overseer of the United Denominations of Action Chapel Churches Worldwide, and Rev. Eastwood Anaba, President of Eastwood Anaba Ministries, had formally resigned from their positions on the Board of Trustees responsible for overseeing the construction of the controversial National Cathedral.

They certainly have some explanation to do. Their decision to step down, they say is a direct result of the government’s failure to appoint an independent auditing firm to carry out a comprehensive examination of all public funds allocated to the National Cathedral project.

Cast your mind back to January 23 of this year. You remember right? The clergymen had made a public call for an immediate halt to the project and insisted on the necessity of a financial audit. Men of faith, they had hoped their call would be heeded but it’s been nine months on and nothing from the camps of the man his dream they have become partakers of. His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

They have their reason written in a joint statement.

“We, therefore, regret that as a matter of conscience and faith, we hereby submit our resignations from the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral. We reiterate, as we did when we first presented our Resolution to the Board of Trustees in January 2023, that our actions do not undermine the vision or purpose of The National Cathedral. Rather, they are aimed at ensuring its advancement, grounded in integrity, efficiency, and quality, all the while securing and maintaining public trust and support.”

They are not only men of faith but also of conscience, so it’s over. But you cannot blame the President. Promises are made to be kept right? Let me tell you a story.

Located approximately 700 meters (765 yards) from Ghana’s Parliament, is one of the world’s most controversial sites – a crater enveloped by overgrown weeds.  But, a staggering $58 million has already been invested in this location for the construction of a national cathedral.

“I made a pledge to almighty God that He was gracious enough to grant my party, the NPP, and I victory in the 2016 elections after two unsuccessful attempts, so I will help build a cathedral to his glory and honour,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said at the sod-cutting ceremony in 2020.

The outcome of a promise to God which now looks nothing far from an abandoned galamsey site has stalled since June due to lack of funds.

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Two-thirds of Ghana’s estimated 30 million people are Christians even though it is an officially secular nation. There are an estimated 10,000 churches nationwide, and open-air preaching is commonplace on public transport, at bus terminals and at road intersections. According to the Africa Oxford Initiative, Accra alone has about 10 churches per square kilometre. Call it Nyamekro if you like.

Scnadals

Funding for the national cathedral has been shrouded in secrecy, but last year, the secretariat in charge of the project said the cost, initially estimated at $100m, has now quadrupled due to inflation.

While presenting the 2019 budget to parliament, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta promised the cathedral would not “put undue financial burdens on the state”.

He said most of the costs would be covered by donations and the government was providing only the land and an unspecified amount of “seed money for the preparatory phase”.

However, that has not been the case. Most of the $58m spent so far has come from the national coffers, Ofori-Atta himself told parliament when it summoned him in November for a censure hearing.

A month later, parliament blocked a budget allocation of $6.3m that the government had wanted to continue the project with even as Ghana struggled to restructure its debt to qualify for a $3bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Critics are accusing the government of using the project to milk state coffers in the name of religion, while some see it as a misplaced priority.

Contrary to Ghana’s procurement laws for projects using taxpayers’ money, no bidding process was conducted for the cathedral’s design contract. It was awarded to Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye for a reported $22m.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, an opposition member of parliament and a critic of the project, accused the board of diverting $206,658 to a private company of one of its members. The Reverend Kusi Boateng is accused of using a different name to establish the firm, JNS Talent Centre Ltd, to receive the funds.

The cathedral secretariat denied the allegation, saying the amount was repayment for a loan taken from Boateng’s company to pay contractors.

Misplaced priority

The Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference has described the project as a misplaced priority.

The President of the Conference, Most Rev. Philip Naameh is reported to have said in an interview that, “Naturally at this time, I will agree with…many other critics that when you look at the economy and things that had to be destroyed in order that the cathedral may come on, we can say that it is definitely not a priority.”

He indicated in his view that the state should not fund the project, especially since the president had promised in the past that donations would fund the project.

He noted that the Bishops’ Conference would prefer to be quiet on the development until it receives the statutes of the project it requested to make informed decisions on the subject.

“The whole thing started with the president who said he had a vision and he made a promise to God that if he was elected president, this is what he will do for God. And so everybody expected that he was going to look for the money and he has also promised that he was not going to use the taxpayer’s money for it. So these are facts that are on the table but I wouldn’t want to comment on them now.

“But to say that at this present stage, it is not a priority, that one I can say. We will prefer to be quiet until we receive the statutes which will contain the management and all that which we have requested,” Archbishop Naameh explained.

The Archbishop, however, stressed that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference still does not have an entrenched position on the project. The statutes that will inform its decision have not been provided, although the Bishops’ Conference requested it years ago.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle in the middle of the scandals

Trapped in the middle of this controversy is Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Vice Chairman of the National Cathedral who served as Vice President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference in the previous administration.

In the interview mentioned above, Archbishop Naameh disclosed that then Vice President of the Conference, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, was serving on the board of the National Cathedral because he was hand-picked by the president. Most Rev Naamah explained that Most Rev Palmer-Buckle’s presence on the project’s board of trustees did not represent the Catholic Bishops’ Conference approval.

Be that as it may, his presence on the board is creating an impression on the minds of many with a section of the the Catholic population in Ghana calling for his resignation. But how has Archbishop Palmer-Buckle been responding to the criticisms?

In a November 2021 interview on Citi TV, Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, said it is unjustifiable for the public to feel that the government’s plan to construct a National Cathedral must be aborted due to supposed economic hardship in the country.

He was of the view that the building of the Cathedral was a great idea, and that, it could not be shelved due to abject poverty.

“People will always ask that there is so much poverty in the system, so how then do you want to construct a National Cathedral. Anyone who knows the history of the construction of Cathedrals around the world, would know that, poverty had always been there. People shouldn’t use poverty as an excuse. What we are saying is that, if you want to donate, do it and that will be a good contribution to the Cathedral.”

Commenting on widespread media speculation that, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is against the Cathedral, Rev. Palmer-Buckle described such reportage as untrue.

He stated that the Bishops are in full support of the move, explaining that the donation made by the leader of the Islamic community in the country is indicative of the religious unity that the project will foster.

Yes, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle is right. The Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference is not against the construction of the National Cathedral as already indicated by Archbishop Naameh in this writeup. But is important to state that the Conference does not have a stance because it is still waiting for the statutes it requested from the leadership of the project of which Archbishop Palmer-Buckle is a part of.

Again it must be stated that the project was sold as one that would be financed on public donations but reports suggest that state funds are being used for this project. Archbishop Palmer-Buckle should be able to speak on this or?

It must be again noted that the majority of the Christian population of which this project will supposedly benefit, are not in support of it. What then is the point?

That also aside, how about the numerous revelations of scandals about the project? Is that also not a good ground for the respected Archbishop to resign? I am saddened as a Catholic.

Pastor Mensa Otabil, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills and Rev. Professor Cephas Omenyo earlier resigned for various reasons.

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, and Rev. Eastwood Anaba have also resigned on grounds of “conscience and faith.” It is no doubt Archbishop Palmer-Buckle has faith but when will he also find conscience regarding this subject? Perhaps, he will return from the Synod on Synodality in Rome with some surprise package. Until then, Peace! Naymekro, Peace!!!

This opinion piece is written by Raymond Nana Yaw Atizigi and submitted to Catholic Trends.