Ghana, appears to have finally found a solution to where to bury its serving and former presidents when they die.
The National Cathedral, when completed, is also going to be a burial place for all ex-presidents and important personalities, when they die.
This was disclosed by the Founder and General Overseer of Power Chapel Worldwide, Prophet Victor Kusi Boateng, who is also the Board Secretary to the project.
The country, has been struggling for a designated burial site for its former Presidents. The Mahama government, made an effort by creating Ghana’s first presidential mausoleum, the Asomdwee Park, off the Osu Castle driveway where the remains of President John Evans Atta Mills, who died in office in 2021, was buried, but has constantly been in disarray.
The last ex-President to have died was Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, the first President of the Fourth Republic, and was buried at the new military cemetery complex behind Burma Camp, the headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), with a minimum capacity of sixteen thousand graves.
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Ahead of Mr Rawlings, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, an economist, academic and politician, who was the fifth Vice-President of Ghana’s 4th Republic and served from August 6, 2012 until January 7, 2017, under President John Dramani Mahama, was buried in the new military cemetery.
But the military cemetery, which many thought was the solution to the country’s teething problem of finding a befitting resting place for its former leaders is about to change again as Prophet Kusi Boateng, explained that the National Cathedral project, which is going to be the biggest Bible Museum in the world, will serve multi-purposes.
It is unclear, if the government will allow the relocation of the President Atta-Mills remains, to the presidential cemetery inside the National Cathedral.
The Mills family, has been advocating for the exhumation and reburial of his remains, saying the Asomdwee Park which the Mahama administration had intended to be a presidential mausoleum, was unfit having been abandoned and left unkempt.
“It is not just about the cathedral, it is Biblical museum which is going to be the biggest. We are building in terms of space, in terms of contents and in terms of technology, Prophet Victor Kusi Boateng, said.
“We are building the biggest Bible museum in the world that is an African Bible Museum because a lot of people don’t know that there is a business white man who came to colonize us and there was the religious white man who came to empower us.
“They were the ones that came to help us build schools like Prempeh College , Opoku Ware, St Augustine’s , Wesley Girls, Holy Child . A lot of people don’t know that Africa plays role in the Bible.
“We don’t know of who the Ethiopian Enoch is and his influence, we don’t even know that Africa was the place that saved Jesus from being prematurely killed,” he said on the Good Evening Ghana show on Thursday December 23.
He added “We are building the state-of-the-art and one of the best museums in the world and the biggest Bible Museum in the world but to be called the African Museum of the Bible. It is going to bring African significance in the Bible.”
“Five thousand expandable to 20,000, you can open it up . We have a museums down there, where ex-presidents who enter into eternity will be buried, we call it a Museum. What we are doing has never been done anywhere in the world,” Rev Kusi Boateng added.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, had told Parliament that the Cathedral would be officially opened on March 6, 2024, upon completion.
He said this while delivering the 2021 mid-year budget review in Parliament on Thursday, July 29, 2021.
“Mr Speaker, work on the National Cathedral is progressing speedily, and following the program of the contractors, and with God helping us, the National Cathedral is expected to be officially commissioned on March 6, 2024. Upon completion, the National Cathedral would provide a sacred space for formal religious activities of State and symbolize the enormous contribution of faith to Nation Building.”
The board, which was inaugurated in March 2017, is chaired by a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, the Most Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi, with the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, the Most Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, as Vice-Chairman.
