The Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Eric Adjei, has expressed profound disappointment over the Christian Council of Ghana’s recent plea to President John Dramani Mahama to resume construction of the controversial National Cathedral project.
In a Facebook post shared on Saturday, November 21, 2025, Adjei said he was deeply saddened by a video circulating online in which leaders of the Christian Council implored the president to continue the edifice initiated by his predecessor, former President Nana Akufo-Addo, despite widespread allegations of fund misappropriation.
He urged the religious leaders to redirect their advocacy towards addressing the unemployment crisis facing Ghana’s youth instead.
“I implore them not to try to be more Catholic than the Pope,” Adjei wrote, invoking the idiom to criticize what he described as an overzealous stance on a project mired in scandal.
“I am very saddened this morning by a video I came across where the leadership of the Christian Council of Ghana pleads with the president to continue building the cathedral that the former president started, even after misusing the funds of citizens. I implore them not to try to be more Catholic than the Pope.
“The youth are crying out for lucrative jobs; can they plead with the government to prioritize creating livelihoods for our youth? I am very disappointed by the actions of the leadership,” he lamented.
His post comes amid a fresh wave of controversy surrounding the $400 million National Cathedral project, which has long been a flashpoint in Ghanaian public discourse.
Initiated in 2019 under the Akufo-Addo administration as a symbol of national interfaith unity, the project has faced intense scrutiny over its funding, with critics accusing the previous government of diverting taxpayer money — estimated at over $58 million — without parliamentary approval or adequate transparency.
The Christian Council’s intervention, articulated in a statement earlier this week, called for the project’s completion under a “transparent framework” to honour commitments made to the Christian community and avoid perceptions of religious discrimination.
The group made a similar plea during a courtesy call on President Mahama at the Presidency.
President Mahama, who assumed office following his victory in the December 2024 elections, responded cautiously to the appeal during the meeting, stressing the importance of public consultation and fiscal accountability before any revival of the project.