Dancehall artiste, Mr. Vegas, has chastised Ghanaian President Nana Akufo Addo, for what he calls foolish spending of $100 million to construct a church in that country.
“I want to bring something to your attention,” Mr. Vegas said in a video post on Instagram recently which he captioned ‘A message to the Ghanaian President.’ “The president of Ghana, President Nana Addo is building a $100 million cathedral dedicating it to his God, Jesus Christ, that gave him victory in the 2016 election.”
“Now President Addo seems to forget that it was the same religion that people came into Africa and used as a means to take millions of Africans to the Western Hemisphere where we were enslaved, raped, mutilated, castrated, hanged on trees,” Vegas said sternly.
According to Vegas, President Addo is slapping black people in the face with his approach and should use the funds raised to build a back history museum instead of a place of worship.
“Now President Addo I think the best thing that you should have been doing with this money that you have to spend is build an historical museum where people like myself who were taken out of Africa and even people in Africa, can come and learn about the act and tribes like the Ashanti tribe and rich cultures of Africa,” Vegas said.
The Ghanaian President had reportedly launched a fundraising drive earlier his year at a gala dinner in Washington DC for the construction of the National Cathedral of Ghana. The move is in fulfillment of his pledge to God to build the edifice in His honor if he won the general elections after losing twice before.
According to Mr. Vegas, Christianity is a Eurocentric concept and so it ought not to be embraced by Africans. The dancehall artiste pointed out that Ghana was home to the major slave shipment ports during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
“Remember the holding area that they held our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers; there was a church on top of that building,” said Vegas as he continued his reprimand of the President. “Remember the slave masters were basically on top of that building, giving praise to Jesus Christ before they sent us off into captivity. This is a slap in the face for people who are trying to come back to Africa, fleeing religion running away from religion that they gave to us and took away our Africanism. It is a slap in the face Mr. Addo, and if this is the best you can do with a hundred million dollars or more, it is very sad.”
“Maybe you need to build some schools in Africa where we can learn Astrology, Astronomy, Mathematics, so our black race can move forward. You supposed to be an intelligent man to know that the oppressors would never gave us a god to save us. Did they give a god to save us when they were taking us out of Africa? If they had given us a god to save us, we couldn’t have built their infrastructures. Big up onuself all Ghananian brothers and sisters, one love,” he ended his rant.
He was supported by Downsound’s Skatta Burrell, himself a staunch critic of Christianity.
“Yes mi bredda; love the message,” Skatta said.
Many of the Ghanaians who viewed the post congratulated the artiste for using his platform to speak out on their behalf.
“Wise words from a noble man Mr Vegas. I am Ghanaian whose heart is saddened about the Prez boring decision. We live in a country children sit under trees to learn, no chairs……..Africa needs visionary leaders and we can make them through music…, conekt_1 said.
“As a Ghanaian I’m happy to see others notice this stupidness,” one fan wrote.
But oteng8234 told Mr. Vegas that he should mind his own business.
“Worry about Jamaica. Nana is a great is a great man. U have no business talking about Ghana,” he said.
