Ghanaians unhappy about government’s consideration to build a national shrine

This is coming after the Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs Minister, Samuel Kofi Dzamesi, announced that the government has the intention to build a national shrine for traditional leaders.

He said that some traditional groups have petitioned his Ministry for the construction of a national shrine which the government is considering.

“Since I took office, as I said, we have a national mosque and now we are in the process of building a national cathedral. And a few times, some traditional groupings have also approached me. There was a group of Wulomɛi [Ga Traditional Priests] who also approached me and actually asked for a traditional shrine.”

“I think that since the constitution allows freedom of worship, we will study it very well and see how possible that will also be. We are not ruling out traditional shrines,” he added.

The decision to build a national cathedral caused controversy but the government insisted on building the national monument.

However, Mr Dzamesi has denied that he said the government is considering building a national shrine.

He said on Accra-based Adom FM that “just yesterday at my press briefing, someone asked a question why the government isn’t putting up a shrine, rather concentrating on building a national cathedral. And I responded by saying that some Wolomei (GA Traditional Priests) have presented a petition on that.”

“And we can only look at their plea, but I never said I was going to build a national shrine,” he said angrily.