The chief executive officer for the board of trustees of the National Cathedral project, Dr. Opoku Mensah, has apologized to the Muslim community in Ghana in relation to his statement about the national mosque.
This apology comes after the coalition of Muslim organizations in Ghana released a press release on Monday, June 13, 2022, debunking the CEO’s statement about the state sponsoring the construction of the National Mosque and demanding that he (Dr. Opoku Mensah) retract his statement publicly.
Dr. Opoku on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, did exactly as the release by COMOG directed.
According to him, he is very sorry for the use of state facilitation in his statement and admits guilt to any pain the Muslim community must have gone through in relation to his statement.
In furtherance, the CEO affirmed that the national cathedral and the national mosque are two different projects, and as such, no citizen should balance them in any form of conversation so that the peace of this country will not be ruined.
In his conclusion, he said that the two projects are a historic alternative for the two religions, the Muslims and the Christians, who make up the majority of the Ghanaian population, to come together on common terms for the progression of peace and cohesion as well as the modification of these religions.
Background information
On Sunday, June 12, 2022, Dr. Opoku, who is the chief executive officer for the board of trustees of the National Cathedral project, asserted that the state contributed to the building of the National Mosque.
This statement went against the Muslim fraternity as they claim the CEO’s comment is false and, as such, through a statement signed by the President of COMOG, Hajj Abdel-Rahman, on Monday, June 13, called for the retraction of the comment, which they describe as a means for the justification of the huge amount of GHc25 million injected into the cathedral.
Kindly check below for the full release by Dr. Opoku Mensah.
STATEMENT BY NATIONAL CATHEDRAL CEO
I retract, and apologize, for the use of state facilitation in my response, and deeply regret the pain it might have caused the COMOG and the Muslim Umma in Ghana. In making this retraction and apology, I want to highlight what I said in the interview, and repeated in my telephone conversation with Hajj Abdel-Rahman.
We should not equalize the discussions on the National Cathedral and the National Mosque as they are separate projects.
We should be very careful as a nation not to disrupt the unique peaceful relations that exists between Muslims and Christians. The Chief Imam, His Eminence Sheik Dr. Osmanu Nunu Sharubutu through, among others, his inspiring personal support for the National Cathedral Project, continues toshow us the way.
The National Mosque and the National Cathedral provide a historic opportunity for these two Abrahamic faiths – Islam and Christianity – whose adherents constitute almost 90% of Ghana’s population, to have the national platforms from which to work together in support of the nation’s peace, cohesion, and transformation.
I pray we use this incident as part of the process to discuss how to make this happen.
