General News of Friday, 17 June 2022

The National Cathedral is in fulfilment of a pledge by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to God before winning the 2016 elections. As a national monument, the Cathedral would house chapels and baptistery, 5,000 capacity seater main auditorium, expandable to 20,000 people for national events and celebrations. Government properties housed on 14 acres of prime lands in Accra were pulled down in order to make way for the construction of the cathedral. The buildings included residential accommodation for Court of Appeal justices. The judicial service was also paying for the construction of more of these accommodations and it had to be stopped and welcome bulldozes to demolition the building for the land to be used to build a 'house for God'. This decision by the government did not go down well with some of the occupants of the facility and through that, Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan, a Court of Appeal judge had to resign in protest. This was disclosed by the North Tongu MP, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. According to him a post on his Facebook timeline, the resignation has been a great loss to justice delivery in Ghana. This is because, the Ghana Bar Association conferred a rare honour on Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan at its 2012/2013 Annual General Conference, celebrating him for his “uprightness and will to resist corruption in the discharge of his duties.” Okudzeto Ablakwa noted that "other nations would have done everything in their power to protect and encourage a jewel-like Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan but here in Ghana he was hounded out and his incorruptible career on the bench literally 'demolished'. "When we reflect on the many physical demolishing that have been carried out to fulfil the President's personal pledge, let us not forget the many careers, dreams and multitudes of jobs that have been equally demolished." "Even if we should be building a cathedral, was this the best available model?" he quizzed. In recent times, the construction of the National Cathedral has been brought to the fore following revelations that the Government has so far sunk some GHC 200 Million of taxpayers’ money into the project despite previous assurances that the project was not going to be funded by Government beyond the allocation of land and some seed money. Find below Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa's full post. When the Akufo-Addo government notified judges in 2018 that they will have to vacate their official bungalows as he was going to demolish them to pave way for the construction of his cathedral which he personally promised God, some of the judges were absolutely furious and fought back. Unfortunately, the affected judges didn’t get the support they expected and had to capitulate. In protest, a distinguished and unblemished Appeal Court Judge, Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan resigned. His resignation has been a great loss to justice delivery in Ghana. This was a judge the Ghana Bar Association conferred a rare honour at its 2012/2013 Annual General Conference, celebrating him for his “uprightness and will to resist corruption in the discharge of his duties.” Other nations would have done everything in their power to protect and encourage a jewel-like Justice Saeed Kweku Gyan but here in Ghana he was hounded out and his incorruptible career on the bench literally "demolished." When we reflect on the many physical demolishing that have been carried out to fulfil the President's personal pledge, let us not forget the many careers, dreams and multitudes of jobs that have been equally demolished. Even if we should be building a cathedral, was this the best available model?