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My Cathedral
• The National Cathedral at the foundation level
“My cathedral has a ceiling of blue; My cathedral ‘neath the sky; Where I may lift up my eyes onto the hills; And hear music from a stream rippling by. My cathedral has an altar of flowers; Their fragrant incense fills the air. In my cathedral I am closer to Him than I could be anywhere; For here I pray, in a place so grand. The carpet I kneel on was made by His own hand.
“My cathedral has candles lighted by the stars; And mighty pillars of trees.
“No others cathedral is so beautiful; For God made my cathedral for me …..” Jim Reeves.
The above lyrics are from a song of same title, sung by the legendary Jim Reeves, who died when the plane he was piloting crashed on July 31, 1964, leaving behind hundreds of songs in gospel, country and rock genres. The last sentence in the song speaks more of his body as a cathedral made by God. Indeed, Gentleman Jim, as he was widely known, is telling us that our body is the temple (cathedral) of God.
No other body is more beautiful than your own because that is where you are closer to Him. In supplication to the higher self, you close your being to anyone and anything else; where you pray in a place so grand. The only thing grander than you is the One who made/created you.
All these bring me to the hoopla about a National Cathedral. During his electioneering in 2016, then candidate Nana Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party said if God helped him win the presidential poll he would build a Cathedral to honour Him. He won the presidency, but whether it was God who won it for him is open to conjecture.
Opinion has been as divided as there are people in the land. Some say it was a personal pledge so Nana Addo should fulfill same from his personal resources. Others said that as president, he made the pledge for and on behalf of the people of Ghana so all must support and contribute towards its construction. But these people forget that when Nana made the pledge he was not president. Question is when does an individual pledge become the burden of the collective?
A few years ago a BBC survey revealed that there were over 60,000 churches in Ghana alone. There is no news about some of the churches operating in the open, thus exposing worshippers to the vagaries of the tropical weather. And many of the churches only have full attendance during certain events like funerals, weddings, Christmas and Easter celebrations.
Anyone desirous of building a cathedral is free to do so. But if it is to be a national monument, the sensible thing is to moot the idea and get the nation to discuss its importance and get our lawmakers to debate it, if funding is to be charged to the public purse. What is the difficulty with this? I see no difficulty.
But we were all made to understand Ghana’s money would not be used. Later, GH¢200 million of our money was doled out for the Cathedral project and christened seed money, whatever that means. This flies in the face of a member of the cathedral board assuring us all that public funds would not be used. This simply is openly stealing money from the people.
What it all means is that members of the cathedral board have been hoodwinked to serve on it. Or the member who told the whole world that state funds would not be used had told us a lie. If he told the truth, then as men of the cloth and integrity, they should have considered themselves ambushed and deceived and relinquish their membership of that board. It would be a great service to their calling and country if they left.
There is an Akan proverb that translates to mean “if a fellow in the nude offers you clothing, look at his state.” How can Nana Addo, who carries a chair all over the country in superstitious abandon, claim to be so God-living as to build a Cathedral to honour Him? I have searched the globe and Ghana’s president is the only leader to carry his own chair to official functions. And a fuel guzzling V-8 is dedicated to carrying this chair alone. This cannot be for the physical safety of our president. In many jurisdictions, venues for presidential visits are swept for bugs and potential explosives.
Assuming there was a national consensus for a cathedral, the wisest thing to do would be to look for a virgin land for the purpose. What sense does it make to pull down property worth over a hundred million dollars just to build a Cathedral worth same amount as was initially stated? It is not as if many of our compatriots dwell in that general area for which reason a Cathedral could serve their religious needs. This area is virtually empty of people after close of work on Fridays because it is located near offices and workplaces.
There is almost always a gridlock during state events in that area, which houses our Parliament, National Theatre, the Accra International Conference Centre, the Accra Sports Stadium, the Independence Square, the popular Osu Cemetery and many more, not to mention almost all our ministries.
Ghanaians love events that bring them together. If a national cathedral is sited at, say, Tsokpoli, we can be sure that our people will troop to fill up the place for a state event. That is who we are. But to pull down structures put up with public funds just to put up such physical edifice cannot please the God our President seeks to honour.
I share in the argument that if a national cathedral serves any nation’s spiritual purpose, the Ivorian Basilica in Yamoussoukro would have saved that country from its civil war. Houphouet Boigny even sited it far away from the capital, Abidjan. I agree it might be serving some tourism purpose, but what our President is obsessed with cannot be for that purpose primarily. Even then, there are more tourist sites to consider and prioritise than a Cathedral or Basilica.
But who says God dwells in physical edifices? Just as Jim Reeves said, “For God made my Cathedral for me.” There also is an Esoteric Maxim that, “One coal will not make a fire but where a number of coals are heaped together, the heat, which is latent in each, will be kindled into a flame, emitting light and warmth.” It is in this vein that the Bible says where a number of people are gathered together in God’s name, there He is among them. A Cathedral, whose very idea is so divisive cannot serve this religious and/or spiritual purpose.
Making a pledge to God is not a walk in the park, even in private, let alone in the public glare. It involves, first, one’s personal spirituality. Second, one must consider the heavy burden of redemption of such a pledge. It is an enormous load to carry. I believe Nana Addo realised this enormity after he won Election 2016 and felt stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. If he would not fulfill the campaign promises but to the people, at least, that to God must be redeemed. This is where one man’s fantasy has entangled a whole nation.
There was a news item that rocks were imported from Israel to serve as foundation stones of our national cathedral. This amuses me no end. Is this because Israel is perceived as the Holy Land and these rocks are holy? Who says anything or everything from Israel is holy? A land where there is a meaningless orgy of bloodshed day in day out cannot, in my estimation, be holy.
Don’t we have men of God imbued with the knowledge and spirituality to consecrate rocks or stones from Afienya to serve as cornerstones of a cathedral? I saw hordes of people dressed as Rabbi in the streets of Israel, but an Israeli friend told me over 70 per cent of them are fake.
I do not want to belabour the argument that there are more pressing national issues than a cathedral. The issues stare us in the face each day we are lucky to rise up in the morning. Let the lizard that ate the chilli sweat it out; not the innocent frog.
BY DR. AKOFA K. SEGBEFIA
Writer’s email address: akofa45@yahoo.com
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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