Pastor Mensa Otabil has criticised Ghanaians who opposed the National Cathedral project, arguing politics blinded them, as a government forensic audit into the stalled project continues.
Otabil, founder of the International Central Gospel Church, pointed to other countries building large religious monuments and said Ghanaians allowed political disagreement to cloud their judgement on the cathedral. “We are so small-minded that we allow politics to blind us,” he said, adding that Christians in the country had “beaten up” the project with their own criticism rather than supporting it. He argued the country should be willing to build on a grand scale for religious purposes.
The National Cathedral was conceived in 2018 under then-President Nana Akufo-Addo and designed by architect Sir David Adjaye for a site near the Osu Cemetery in Accra, but construction has stalled above the foundation after an estimated $97 million was spent. A Deloitte and Touche audit commissioned after President John Mahama took office found significant procurement breaches and unaccounted funds, including GH¢4.9 million the report said was wrongly paid to Adjaye’s firm. The government dissolved the project’s Secretariat in May 2025, moved to legally dissolve its Board of Trustees, and began terminating the original construction contract. The Auditor-General is now carrying out a broader forensic audit, which Mahama has said will determine the project’s future, including a floated option of converting the site into a National Cultural Convention Centre.
Otabil was himself listed for years as a member of the cathedral’s Board of Trustees before distancing himself from active involvement in the project, a fact that surfaced in a 2022 dispute over the Secretariat’s continued use of his name and image in its promotional materials.
