Trade Unions in Ghana have slammed the government’s resolve to build a national cathedral. They claim the project is irrelevant at a time when the country is reeling under severe economic hardship.
Over one million Ghanaians according to the Unions are losing their jobs within the last two years, something they want addressed.
The National Cathedral is designed to be Ghana’s mother church where all faith and denominations would gather and worship.
Ghana’s President Akufo-Addo recently described the project as “dear to my heart”, adding it is “priority among priorities.”
Critics of the project say it is not a priority due to the prevailing socio-economic circumstances in the country. They consider the construction of such an edifice as a waste of scarce national resources.
Ghanaian workers speak
Ghana’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) in a statement on Monday said it “cannot sit on the fence for a cathedral to become a “priority among priorities” in Ghana.”
Highlighting the challenges confronting Ghana the TUC said “Currently, over six million Ghanaians do not have access to clean water; one out of every four Ghanaian children is affected by chronic malnutrition; anemia affects 66 percent of young children and 42 percent of women of childbearing age”.
“Only 15 percent of urban residents and 6 percent of rural residents have access to sanitation facilities. A very significant number of households lack access to toilet facilities and so open defecation is quite common. There is only one doctor for 8000 Ghanaians compared to World Health Organisation (WHO) standard of one doctor for 5000 people” TUC added.
It wondered “Why a national cathedral is “a priority among priorities” in these circumstances? Why should government use scarce national resources to construct a national cathedral when we have all these social and economic challenges to deal with?”
The government despite criticisms is not backing down on the project. It has earmarked existing national edifices that must be pulled down to make way for the project.
Source: Africafeeds.com
