Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito, is a Ghanaian politician and the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says a lot of the political parties have shown their reason and opinion on the building of the National cathedral. The CPPs are of the view that the country is not a circular country so the government can not build the cathedral with the nation’s money.
Moreover, the Building of the Cathedral was a personal pledge President Akuffo Addo made to God which was to serve as a thanksgiving to God if His wins the election, and it was not the nation’s decision so to build the cathedral, therefore nation’s money should be exempted.
General Mosquito stated on radio Gold that, the various committees which were supposed to help his excellency put up the cathedral were his personal choice and personal decision. It is true He has selected some people from the Christian space but, it should be noted that the Christian council has no hands in the committees created but they were appointed by the president.
He further stated in the interview that, individuals and citizens should come to the realization that, all the top leaders in the committee were basically appointed by the President and there were no external hands in that. The project also took off as a private project and it is not Government or national project. But the impression that has been created is that the Government is building a cathedral and this is because the truth has not been explicitly made known to the General Public.
The issue is not about the importance of the cathedral but the question is whose project is the National cathedral. We should also bear in mind that, the Government only promised to help build the cathedral with land and not to destroy other Government properties to build the cathedral.
The Finance Minister redrawing Hundred and forty-two million Ghana cedis to support the national cathedral was where the problem started, this is because Ghana is a country of law and no money was to be taken out of the nation’s account without the necessary approvals.
These two ways of getting approvals for withdrawing funds can only be through approval of the budget by parliamentarians and the second is the law giving room for withdrawal on special initiatives
The General Secretary of the NDC, General Mosquito is saying that the NDC has no problem with the building of the cathedral, but their problem is the money that has been taken from the nation’s coffers and what is the purpose of that money, and who approved the withdrawal. We should note that the project did not pass through any procurement process.
There was no budget that also came to parliament about the cathedral thus who approved the budget for the withdrawal? General Mosquito then stated that the President has a serious question to answer and the President should remember that, the debate is not about the importance of the cathedral but the major question here is whose project is the cathedral?
WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE
