President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has opened the National Mosque of Ghana Complex at a brief ceremony at Nima here in Accra.
The edifice contains a grand mosque, which is the second-largest in West Africa, an office complex for the National Chief Imam, a clinic fitted with laboratories and a pharmacy; a library, and a morgue.
With the current and immediate past Presidents of Niger, Mohammed Bazoum and Mahamadou Issoufou, and Professor Ali Erbaş, President of the Directorate of Religious Affairs of Turkey, present, President Akufo-Addo applauded the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, as well as the government and people of the Republic of Turkey for its financial and technical support offered toward the construction of the Complex.
“The minaret of this mosque is very visible from many parts of Accra. For me, it is not just the beauty that it adds to Accra’s skyline that excites me necessarily. I am even more excited by the fact that, as a Christian-majority country, a symbol of Islam can beautifully adorn our landscape, and expose the beauty of religious harmony that we enjoy in Ghana, and which continues to be the envy of the rest of the world,” the President said.
Acknowledging the importance of a mosque in the theological architecture of Islam, he noted that Prophet Mohammed’s Mosque in Madina continues to be a site of pilgrimage for devotees from across the world.
The mosque, President Akufo-Addo explained, is not just a place of prayer, stressing that “it is a hub for social and cultural activities. In other words, a mosque is supposed to bring people together, and not divide them”.
