Pastor Otabil defends National Cathedral: Christians should unite beyond politics

Ghana's National Cathedral project remains a point of contention within the Christian community, but Founder and leader of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil, has doubled down on his conviction that the initiative deserves wholehearted backing from believers across the nation.

Speaking at the ICGC Christ Temple East in Teshie during the church's 2026 Greater Works programme, Pastor Otabil stated that Christians should not have opposed the cathedral's construction, and insisted his 2019 resignation from the National Cathedral Board of Trustees did not signal abandonment of the vision. Instead, he framed his departure as a tactical step while maintaining unwavering support for the underlying mission.

"We need to build massively to the glory of God," Otabil declared, emphasising that Christians have a spiritual responsibility to create monumental structures that reflect their faith and values.

Political divisions have clouded religious judgment

Central to Otabil's message was a pointed critique of how Ghanaian Christians allowed political affiliation to dictate their stance on a religious project. The National Cathedral has been a flashpoint between the government and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), with partisan actors weaponising the debate rather than examining the project on its merits.

"We are so small-minded, so small-minded that we allow politics to blind us. We allow politics to just crush our thinking," Otabil said, expressing frustration at what he sees as a failure of Christian leadership to transcend electoral cycles and factional interests.

He argued that the cathedral should have been evaluated from a broader religious and national lens—one that considers the spiritual significance of the structure and Ghana's standing as a Christian nation, rather than through the prism of which political party initiated or funds it.

Why it matters for Ghana

The National Cathedral debate reflects deeper tensions within Ghana's religious and political landscape. While Ghana hosts the National Mosque at Kanda in Accra, completed in 2021 with Turkish financial support and commissioned without comparable domestic controversy, another major Islamic facility is being developed at East Legon with Saudi backing. Otabil's invocation of these projects underscores a perception among some Christian leaders that their faith community is falling behind in mobilising resources for grand religious infrastructure.

The cathedral's troubled trajectory—marked by funding challenges, construction delays, and questions about governance and accountability—has created openings for critics to question both the project's viability and the stewardship of Christian institutions. Yet Otabil's intervention suggests that significant voices within Ghana's Christian establishment remain committed to the vision, albeit with measured expectations about timelines.

For ordinary Ghanaians, the debate touches on fundamental questions about religious freedom, state resources, interfaith equity, and whether national projects can be evaluated on principle rather than partisan loyalty. The fact that a prominent pastor felt compelled to reaffirm his support indicates the project remains alive symbolically, even if construction progress remains sluggish.

Otabil's call for Christian unity on the matter may resonate with believers frustrated by the politicisation of faith institutions, but it also highlights the persistent challenge: in Ghana's polarised political environment, separating religious conviction from electoral allegiance remains extraordinarily difficult.