Although God certainly was not going to vote at the 2016 general elections in Ghana, the main opposition leader at the time, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, took his political campaign trail from the earth to heaven.
Standing before the Most High on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the former foreign affairs minister made a campaign promise to build a national cathedral for Him if he won the December 7 presidential election.
The election came. And the lawyer-turned-politician won, becoming the 13th president of Africa’s largest gold producer at age 72. In addition to his lopsided presidential victory, his party also secured an overwhelming majority number of seats in the 7th Parliament of the 4th Republic.
It is not certain if God was responsible for the eventual record win because of the cathedral promise. What is certain is that the former ECOWAS chairman failed to deliver on the campaign promise he made to God throughout his scandal-ridden 8-year presidency.
What appeared to be an attempt to fulfill that promise only turned out to be what many local and foreign observers described as an organised scam perpetrated against God and the state.
The national cathedral project, situated in the national capital, Accra, was dogged by an investment waste and decay unsurpassed in proportion in the country’s history of scandals.
It started as a presidential candidate’s personal promise with an initial price tag of $100 million. But the project construction never went beyond the digging of only a foundation hole that cost more than $58 million jointly funded by the state and some individuals.
The cathedral rot drew public rage amid a severe economic hardship Ghanaians were facing across the country largely due to resource mismanagement by the Akufo-Addo government.
As the public wrath and condemnation waxed louder, all the more so because the project execution was short of transparency, some of the country’s best-known clergymen, who had been appointed as members of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees, resigned from the board. The preachers had joined Akufo-Addo on Thursday, 5 March 2020, among other members of the board to lay the foundation stone to start the construction.
The quitting clergymen— including Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, Rev. Eastwood Anaba, Pastor Mensa Otabil, Bishop Dag Heward-Mills and Prof. Cephas Omenyo— cited failure on the part of the cathedral’s board to appoint independent accounting experts to audit all public funds contributed to construct the cathedral as the reason for washing their hands off the project.
Comment, response from two lawmakers on legacy
Before the NPP lost the 2024 general elections, Akufo-Addo renamed several public universities, most of the institutions now bearing names of some deceased NPP members.
On Wednesday, 7 May 2025, the new minister for education, Haruna Iddrisu, announced the intention of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, led by President John Dramani Mahama, to return the universities to their original names.
The announcement drew a reaction the following day from the lawmaker for Bantama, Francis Asenso-Boakye. He commented on his Facebook page that the NDC government was only out to erase Akufo-Addo’s legacy.
“The NDC government’s plan to reverse the renaming of public universities by the Akufo-Addo administration is not only petty; it is deeply regrettable. It reflects a desperate attempt to undo the legacy of the previous government, at the expense of national unity and forward progress.
“These institutions were named after distinguished Ghanaians whose contributions to our nation are undeniable. To now erase that honour is not only disrespectful, but also dangerously revisionist. Ghanaians did not vote for this government to indulge in symbolic politics. They voted for real solutions: jobs, better education, and improved infrastructure,” he remarked.
Continuing, he added: “This move sets a troubling precedent. If every new government undoes the actions of its predecessor, where does it end? This cycle of partisan undoing will only stall our national development. Let us rise above petty politics and work together to build a better Ghana.”
Hours later, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South, Clement Apaak, took to his own Facebook page and replied to the comment. He said the legacy associated with the former president, now 81, was the “biggest hole” he dug for a national cathedral while in office between 2017 and 2025.
“What legacy? Akufo-Addo’s legacy is the biggest hole he illegally used our money to dig. This legacy is globally recognised and will forever remain his most enduring legacy.
“You call renaming several existing universities by a President who didn’t build them, not even one, his legacy? No,” retorted Apaak.
He further affirmed: “We made it clear that the partisan cum clan induced renaming of public institutions of higher learning by Akufo-Addo will be reversed, and that is exactly what we will do.”
In 2016, Akufo-Addo was seen to be desperate for power by his critics, having run for president twice in 2008 and 2012 without success.
The desperation, the critics posited, led him into taking his campaign to another level with a cathedral promise to none other than the Author of Creation.
It may take some time before Akufo-Addo makes a public statement on the planned restoration of the universities’ original names, which is one of the top issues in the country today.
That delay may be shorter than it has taken him to respond to the increasing public calls for him to apologise to God and Ghanaians for the promised national cathedral the West African nation never had— and, perhaps, be free at last from the eerie tag from critics that he ‘scammed’ God just to possess the political power he no longer has.
Source: Edward Adeti/Media Without Borders/mwbonline.org/Ghana
