The pressure group, Justice for Ghana, has added its voice to the many calls for the government to halt the construction of the National Cathedral of Ghana.
Speaking to the media while picketing around the grounds of the National Cathedral, on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, Selorm Dzramado, a leading member of the group, said that the Cathedral project cannot go on given the economic challenges in Ghana.
He called on the government to use the money budgeted for the Cathedral in the 2023 budget, which was disapproved by Parliament, to pay the arrears owed trainees of the Nations Builders’ Corps (NABCO) programme and National Service Scheme (NSS) personnel.
“Ghanaians are suffering excruciating hardship and do not need the scarce state funds accrued from taxing them to be used for funding fanciful frivolities that President Akufo-Addo considers his priority of priorities.
“We demand that NABCO victims and National Service personnel, who have not been paid while David Adjaye (the architect for the National Cathedral) was paid (GH¢) 113 million upfront for no work done, be immediately paid from savings made by Parliament stopping the (GH¢) 80 million budgeted for the Cathedral.
The group also called on the Parliament to intervene to avert the intended strike actions by labour unions including doctors and teachers over the plan of the government to give haircuts to pensions of workers.
It urged Parliament to block all the new taxes the government is attempting to introduce because Ghanaians are already going through a lot of hardships.