Are Muslims and Christians angry with Akufo-Addo?
Are Christians and are Muslims unhappy that he was the one that commissioned the Turkish sponsored national Mosque yet have not fulfilled his promise of a National Cathedral?
His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the President of Ghana, commissioned the Turkish sponsored mosque at Kawokudi in the Ayawaso East constituency of the Greater Accra region. The mosque at the cost of $10 million dollars is the largest in West Africa.
The edifice is a complete Islamic complex beautifully erected by all standards. Everything Islamic is captured in the Islamic complex including the office of the National Chief Imam. The name of the mosque is known as Furqan National Masjid (mosque).
However, this act by the President has provoked two arguments. First, some members of the Muslim community are not comfortable that Akufo-Addo was the one who commissioned the mosque he didn’t build.
They declared that that masjid (mosque) is the house of Allah, consequently a very pure and holy place for worshipping Allah. Hence Chief Imam should have been the one to commission the masjid. They argue that Akufo-Addo is not a Muslim and has shown so much deception as a leader thus unfit to commission the house of righteousness.
Now as if that is not enough, some Christians are also disappointed in the President and his NPP government for promising Christians and the nation as a whole a national Cathedral that never saw the light of the day. Even expensive houses for state judges were destroyed in the name of building a national cathedral for the Christians.
Only for the president and NPP to disregard the Christians for the cathedral but follow the commissioning of the super monumental mosque even as he knows nothing about how the Turkish government came in, funded and built the mosque under President John Dramani Mahama of the NDC.
There is growing apprehension in the Muslim fraternity and also the Christians. There is a growing level of dissatisfaction from both sides with president Akufo-Addo and the NPP.
Some members of the Muslim community believe that the President imposed himself to commission the masjid (mosque) for cheap political gains because it is totally against Islam for non-Muslim to commission such Islamic monumental masjid especially when they didn’t build it.
In the same vein, some Christians feel neglected by the President and the NPP. According to some of them, a huge demonstration is loading to demand the promised yet ignored cathedral from Akufo-Addo and the NPP. They perceive that the president will not fulfil the promise to build a cathedral for the Christians. And many are accusing the President of wanting to fund the cathedral from the LGBTQ+ community.
Ghana is certainly in a hodgepodge, everything is just not looking right and needs fixing. This is why fixing the country is ultimately relevant and very crucial.
Author: Faisal Mutaru Bapure
