The founder of Action Chapel International has disclosed that then-candidate Nana Akufo-Addo vowed to construct a National Cathedral in honour of God if he is elected as the president.

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams said Nana Akufo-Addo believed this would unlock his electoral fortunes in 2016 leading to his election as the president of the country, after two successive failed attempts.

The Archbishop who revealed this during the fundraising event for the edifice in Accra on Friday said someone close to the president approached him after the 2012 presidential election loss.

The confidante, whom he refused to name, inquired from him what then-candidate Nana Akufo-Addo could do to become the first gentleman of the land. 

Candidate Nana Akufo-Addo had run and lost the both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and needed spiritual directions, the Archbishop said.

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams

"...I had spoken to someone committed and close to him [Akufo-Addo in] 2012 when he didn’t make it to the presidency and he said to me...what will it take for him to be president and I said it will take divine intervention.

“…he has to do something to touch the heart of God, he needs to do something to move God’s arm but I didn’t know what it was so I didn’t mention anything,” the Archbishop said.

According to him, prior to the 2016 elections, the confidante came to tell him Nana Akufo-Addo has sworn to construct a National Cathedral in honour of God should win the presidency.

“The gentleman came to me and said he [Nana Akufo-Addo] has made a vow and I said what is the vow.

“He said ‘he [candidate Nana Akufo-Addo] made a vow that when he becomes the president, he will see to it that a national cathedral is built to the glory of God and to the name of the Lord,” he disclosed.

A member of the board of trustees for the construction of the edifice said, he recently asked the president for an explanation of his decision to put up such a cathedral.

According to him, God is doing wonders in his life in ways he can’t explain since he committed to be part of the trustees against all his personal commitments.

An artistic impression of the National Cathedral

According to him, it was at that meeting that President Akufo-Addo confirmed to him it was a vow he made to God prior to his electoral victory in 2016.

“…as a spiritual man, as I looked him in the eye, I was convinced and I believed that that was the key that unlocked his victory,” he said.

“If that vow to build a national cathedral gave him the ability or the capability to unlock and to demystify a mystery and broke a curse that gave him right to become president of Ghana and my being involved is beginning to touch, move and influence men and women to help me out with my own vision, then there is something about this national cathedral that requires my commitment,” he said.