The great philosopher Karl Marx once said: RELIGION IS THE OPIUM OF THE MASSES.

Opium is a depressant drug - it slows down messages traveling between your brain and body.

And to package religion to become such a powerful drug on the masses and intoxicate them, is exactly what President Akufo-Addo is trying to do in Ghana - feeding the Ghanaian Christian community into stupor.

The feeding is done such that you the member of the masses, do not instantly become aware of your prevalent personal poverty conditions, as your attention is turned towards building a big Temple for you to go and worship your God, even in your poverty and misery.

According to Karl Max, the formula is:-
Keep the masses poor, hungry, in rags and darkness, whilst you enrich yourself and make merry with their national resources including the taxes they pay to you.

However, as soon as a few of the people begin to realize the trick and start to agitate for improvement in their living conditions, tell the masses that you’re building a big CHURCH for them, by which they can all be guaranteed golden plated homes in Heaven.

This is as simple as ABCD.
Emperors (during the time of Karl Max) used this formula.
Autocratic Leaders and Dictators (Like Felix Hophouet Boigny of Ivory Coast) also used it.
And now Akufo-Addo is also using it in Ghana.

To test that the OPIUM is working, check how the leadership of the Community behave in response to the Emperor’s or President’s move to use religion to divert attention.

So in Ivory Coast, President Houphouet Boigny got the head of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul to travel all the way to the West African country, just to consecrate and dedicate the Basilica he built in Yamoussoukro. This was after the leadership of the Christian community in Ivory Coast had been used to canvass for support for the construction.

Similarly, in Ghana, all is set, so the General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, has boldly said that part of our oil revenues meant for investments (Heritage Fund), be withdrawn to fund Akufo-Addo’s personal pledge to build a Cathedral. The Christian Council boss is saying so because the OPIUM is clearly working.

Thankfully, many Ghanaians have dismissed his comments as unwise, but fact is the Christian Council will not give in - because it is predictably hypnotized by the promise of getting a national cathedral built during their time as leaders of the Christian community.

Dazed and pushed into frenzy, the mouthpiece of the Christian Community prefer we keep the phenomenon of no-bed in our hospitals, huge number of schools under trees, death trap roads, depleted number of commercial farms, huge unemployed youths, and in their stead, we withdraw all the moneys we can find from our oil funds to build a Cathedral.

The General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, the likes of Catholic’s Palmer Buckle, Pentecost’s Opoku Nyina, believe, that by pushing for the use of our taxes and oil revenues to be deployed into the construction of the National Cathedral, it will enhance their chances of going to Heaven, where the promise of a fabulous and timeless life of enjoyment awaits them individually.

It is evidently clear that their personal lifestyles have not not guaranteed them places in Heaven. Not yet. Therefore the idea of securing a national cathedral, to the detriment of life-rescuing and critical needs of the masses, is a sure way for them to secure their visas to Heaven, believing that God Almighty will be so pleased with them.

Thousands of years after his death, Karl Max has been vindicated once again - thanks to Akufo-Addo and his friends the Bishops and Apostles at the Christian Council of Ghana.

Forget about the millions of our people dying in poverty, let’s build a house for God.
Even if our millions of youths are hungry and jobless, let’s build the Cathedral.
Ghana should continue to import cassava, maize, soya beans, cowpea, oil etc, yet let’s use all our moneys to build a mighty place for worship.
Our women in labor should continue to suffer in long distances of travel to health facilities, and many of them should die, yet we should use the oil revenues to build a National Cathedral.

A Cathedral is more important than all our needs.
What a shame!!!

Benjamin Essuman
Executive Director
SOLIDAIRE GHANA
Accra