In the wake of the announcement by the Mahama Administration that the National Cathedral is to be turned into a National Cultural Convention Center under the proposed 24 hour economic plan, many voices have expressed their opinions on the matter which is of national interest considering the political twists between the NPP and NDC prior to the 2024 General Elections.
With the then opposition NDC taking a very strong stance against the National Cathedral, it is coming as a surprise to many observers that, in government, the NDC is making a very dramatic u-turn.
In an exclusive interview, Mr. Koku Anyidoho, Founder and CEO of the MILLS Institute for Transformational Development, a Public Policy Advocacy Think-Tank, he says the fact that the structure is not being allowed to rot and waste away is a positive sign considering how many projects have been abandoned over the years after regime changes.
According to the Public Policy Advocate, “as far as I am concerned, whether it is national cathedral or national cultural center, once the structure still carries the national flag, I am all for it”.
According to Mr. Anyidoho, “that prime land is so critical as far as our national spatial development is concerned and to the extent that it would still remain a national asset and not sold to a private developer, sits well with me”.
Making his point further, Mr. Anyidoho said that, the former Administration was interested in the religious bonding of the nation and if the current Administration is interested in the cultural bonding of the nation, once it is about the supreme interest of Ghana, let’s pray that the project comes to fruition.
“As we have entered the month of July, and 24th will be 13 years since we lost the late President Atta-Mills, one thing he often said was that, there is more that unites us than divides us so I look at the new Government’s decision from that perspective of seeking to give a different dimension to a project that at the outset was meant to unite rather than divide us”.
Asked whether it was unfair for the NDC to have hit hard and done rough politics with the cathedral project only to now want to use it for a cultural center and claim credit for it, this is what Mr. Anyidoho said “I leave those who want to play petty partisan politics to continue; I choose to look at this issue from a nationalistic/patriotic/statseman-like angle and re-iterate the point that for as long as the project is not being left to rot and it is being re-tooled with the flag of Ghana flying a nationalist identity over it, I just hope and pray that it would be completed for the benefit of everyone Ghanaian living today and into generations”.
“The petty partisan politics is killing this dear country of ours and so if we say something in opposition and get into power and change minds based on the realities of governance, I do not consider it a weakness; I consider it as strength based on candid admission of the facts as opposed to fiction,“ Koku Anyidoho said.
