A section of the clergy in the Greater Accra Region has implored President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government to covert the National Cathedral Project to an employable skills training center.
According to them, converting the Cathedral Project into a Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Hub or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) institute, will address the needs of Ghanaians.
Founder and General Overseer of Messiah Is Alive Chapel International, Prophet Benhail Asante, in a release copied to the press on Saturday in Accra, said that the national job center would employ many residents.
The General Overseer bemoaned how the 2022 Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) reported that an alarming 1.76 Million Ghanaians are unemployed and for that reason, the country needs an employment creation center than a prayer and worship space.
“High rate of joblessness among residents of a country especially, the young persons has created a serious national security issue.”
“Solving it with employment-based interventions is prudent. Building the cathedral with state resources is below the belt,” he cautioned.
He added that God is not against individuals or nations building auditoriums for him but where a leader is struggling to feed his citizenry, while the residents are divided against the same project, is not worthy before God.
Prophet Benhail Asante called on the Christian council and other religious bodies to join hands to plead with the president to convert the cathedral into projects that will benefit the entire country.
The building of the National Cathedral was the mastermind of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to erect a national monument to be a symbol of eternal and continuing gratitude to God for his unflinching favor bestowed on Ghana.
According to the President of the Republic, the cathedral would address the missing link in the country’s national architecture (a church of national purpose).
The National Cathedral was planned to serve as a National non-denominational and inter-denominational facility for prayer and worship center of learning and a national point of convergence and a tourist site.
It will also offer African historians and interpreters of Christianity in a non-Western context an opportunity to retell and symbolize the faith in ways that will feature the African contribution to the history of Christianity.
The Cathedral was set to have sacred spaces namely chapels, baptistry, prayer rooms, Bible museum, research libraries, conference facility, music school, administrative offices, restaurant, and a national crypt, amongst other facilities.
Prophet Benhail Asante stressed that if the state sponsor such a cost-intensive edifice while its citizens are disunited and jobless, the results would not be good for the country.
“Our President urged residents of the country not to be spectators in his governance and economic development policies implementation. I hope he will hear our suggestion and heed it,” the Founder of Messiah Is Alive Chapel International stated.
