Thank You, Pastor Mensa Otabil,
Posted by By Akogun Akomolafe at 8 March, at 13 : 51 PM Print
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“I maintain that there is no solution for African people, except for some form of Pan African Nationalism, no matter how you cut it… We stop apologizing, stop imitating and began to innovate. For a people to be free, they have to produce one sacrificial generation. This generation must be the role model for other generations to come. Maybe a generation will have to wear dungarees so that another generation can wear tuxedos. We have not yet considered that. How do we become a whole people again? I think we should begin by finding a mirror and liking what we see. We are hung up with so many off-beat religions – none of which we created – we’re cutting each other to pieces, – deserting each other, destroying each other based on ideologies of no consequences to us as a people… We have to realize it is not the effort of any one of us that will lead to freedom, but the collective work of all of us who are sincere.” – Dr. Henrik Clarke
“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.” – Malcolm X
pastor mensa otabil
It looks like some of our religious leaders are finally finding their voices to do and say the correct thing.
For years, the religious elite have joined the political elite to pull wool over our eyes and tell us the stupidest of lies.
While the politicians loot our commonwealth while pretending to serve us, the priests continue to make their good living, at the expense of the ignorant congregation they bamboozled to part with their money in tithes, offerings and the other financial gimmicks concocted to enrich the priests.
For the patronage they get from the politicians, many of the so-called men of god tell us ungodly lies. They ask that we wait until we die and go to some heavens before we enjoy what is basic to most humans today.
But it looks like some of them are changing. Some of them seem to have caught the bug of epiphany, and their god have whispered into their ears to stop their wicked ways.
We have maintain that the only thing that interest us in this column in the honest and unvarnished truth.
We harbor no ill-wind towards anyone, and we maintain no die-cast political or ideological views that cannot be recasted in the presence of new evidence or facts.
We condemn when necessary, and we give praises where it is deserved.
Few weeks ago, in the article: “A Bishop’s fulminations and the ire of presidential attack dogs,” we lauded the Methodist Bishop of Obuasi in the Ashanti Region, Rt. Rev. Stephen Bosomtwe Ayensu, for telling the current government of Ghana some bitter truth.
Today, we give a big shout out to one of Ghana’s leading Clergymen, Pastor Mensa Otabil.
| The good pastor lend his considerable voice to what we have been saying on these pages; viz that it is time we Africans totally overhaul our mental attitudes, and join the rest of humanity in using our faculties to look for our own solution to the problems that confront us.This is how the Pastor’s speech was captured: “Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) has asked Ghana and the entire African Continent to stop begging for ‘help’ from foreign countries and international agencies.
Speaking at the Church’s 30th anniversary celebrations at the Accra Sports stadium on March 2, 2014, Pastor Mensa Otabil said the over dependency culture on foreign aids is gradually crippling the entire African continent. He said “we seemed impossible to handle and solve our own problems…it is time to stretch our hands to God and then work with the hands that God has given to us. We have God in ourselves and we can make it here in Ghana” Comparing the Continent to an immature butterfly that is helped by natural forces in the environment to come out of its cocoon rather than struggling to do so by itself, and by so doing, maturing independently, Dr Otabil said: “Instead of pushing out of our cocoons by ourselves, we beg for others to come help us. In the process we have become a crippled people. Look around us and see how we have crippled ourselves like that butterfly. Our farms are crippled. Our rivers are crippled. Our environment is crippled. Our industries are crippled. Our schools are crippled. Yet we look for some help from outside” Even though he admitted that it will not be easy to depend on our own resources as a country and a continent, he said we can start by taking one step at a time, adding here a little, there a little, precept upon precept and gradually something will come out of the enormous resources that God has given as a country and a people. “It will not be easy if we decide to do it ourselves. It will be hard. It will be tough. It will be painful but we will emerge with strong and capable wings. If a church (ICGC) which started in a classroom can do it, a whole nation, endowed with gold, oil and diamond should be able to do it. A whole Continent of 52 States with innumerable natural resources should be able to do it if we stretch our hands to God we can make our lives and the lives of our children better” Pastor Otabil also told the youth to rise up for “the future is yours. The future is for prepared people. The future is for serious people so don’t joke with your life and the opportunities that come your way” – http://news.peacefmonline.com/pages/religion/201403/191688.php Good gracious, me! I couldn’t have said it better! Thank you immensely, Pastor Mensa Otabil. May your God continue to richly bless you! I doff my hat to you for having the courage and the audacity to tell us very bitter truth, especially when you know that most of us are born hypocrites who prefer sugar-coated lies to home truth. In the Presidential Addresses we have been penning of recent, we have urged that our rulers develop the habit to tell us the truth and nothing but the truth. They should think beyond the next election and get the courage to tell us bitter truth. It gladdens the heart mightily that we have honest and courageous men like Pastor Otabil who think correctly, and have the bravery to speak their mind. This is rare in a country people worship sycophancy and prefer to live on stupid lies. Before I read the heart-warming piece by Pastor Otabil, I have been reeling over two utterly imbecilic reports that defaced the newspapers recently. One was the statement attributed to a Minister in the Republic of Ghana. The Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, was reported to have told us that the president cannot do much about our deteriorating economic situation because it has been ordained by holy books! May the gods have mercy! As it was reported: “The Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing, Alhaji Collins Dauda, speaking at Obuasi at the weekend during the 10th anniversary celebration of the enskinment of Adansi Sarki Zongo, Alhaji Gibrine Ibrahim, argued that there was little the President could do to address the situation, since both the Qur’an and the Bible have predicted hard condition at the End Time. |
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http://elections.peacefmonline.com/pages/politics/201402/189119.php The second story that left me fuming with righteous ire was the one credited to Madam Anita Desooso, The National Women’s Organiser of the governing National Democratic Congress, who reportedly blamed the steep depreciation of the cedi against the dollar and other major trading currencies to black magic or juju. “Anita Desooso, speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem morning show of Monday February 10, 2014 said the activities of magicians, who conjure up money as part of their stock in trade, have a direct effect on the cedi, which is witnessing unprecedented depreciation in recent times. Citing the activities of black marketers, currency speculators and other people she describes as “saboteurs”, Ms Desooso, who was recently appointed a deputy National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), claimed the juju men, who use dwarfs, stole such monies from banks and other financial institutions and inadvertently affected their stability. ‘Do we know where they get the money from? Do we know what they do with it? These dwarfs, the black magic, is what has made the cedi lose value,’ she declared.”-http://myjoyonline.com/politics/2014/February-10th/fall-of-the-cedi-is-due-to-juju-dwarfs-anita-desooso.php Ok, ok, we can excuse Madam Anita, as she appears to be doing what politicians all over the world do; raise dust over our eyes with bovine statements that has little or nothing to do with veracity. Moreover, Ms Desooso is a party apparatchik and not [technically] part of the government. But how on earth do we have a minister in our government, in this age and time, telling us that our rulers are helpless, because some books have ordained that things should be the way they are! I cannot believe that the president and some of the intelligent ministers (Foreign Minister Hannah Tetteh comes easily to mind) sit in the same cabinet meetings with Mr. Dauda. I also find it difficult to imagine that Mr. President did not do a thing about this minister when he read that preposterous outburst. What is the point in having a government, in having a president, in our having elections, even in our having a state if the holy books have decreed that things will go their ways irrespective of what we do? After reading the type of bovine statement credited to Alhaji Dauda, we should be grateful to people like Pastor Mensa Otabil. We have maintain on these pages that our future is indeed bleak until and unless we recognize the dire state we are in. We shall not make a headway until and unless we appreciate how far behind the other races we truly are. We remain the only branch of humanity that cannot feed, clothe or house itself decently without foreign assistance. That is despite all the huge mineral resources we have under our soil. Like the good Pastor Otabil did, our leaders will do well to tell us the simple truth that we are deluding ourselves if we believe that some gods are coming down from the sky to solve our problems for us; it will never happen. What exactly do we still want the gods to come and do for us? They gave us good climate and the best minerals to be found anywhere on earth. If through our stupidity, laziness and corruption, we signed away all the mineral rights for paltry 3, 6 & 10%, do we expect the gods to come and teach us negotiating skills, or to become our minister for mineral resources? As we argued in one piece: “Our Presidents will do well to tell us that we are wasting our time by reading so-called holy books of dubious origins and zero knowledge base. We have no one but ourselves to blame if we continue to wallow in poverty because we refused to employ our intellects to solve purely temporal problems, as others have done and continue to do. The poser and challenge for us is why is it that our continent is the world’s richest in terms of mineral resources, and yet we remain the world’s underachievers and basket case? We die in millions when there is drought and we perish in millions when there is flood! Our electricity suppliers continue to blame too much water or too little of it in our dam, for their inability to provide us with steady power supply. Instead of properly educating ourselves to face the challenges of a globalized world we rather would spend inordinate amount of time in churches, mosques, prayer camps and what have you. And we pretend not to know why we live poorer than pets in some countries! Instead of de-silting our gutters, we would rather go and dance ourselves senseless at HOLY GHOST RETREATS; and we pretend not to know why we are dying of easily curable diseases. We would rather dance or beg than work. We would rather party than read. We would rather celebrate than think. Mental, intellectual and physical lethargy is our main problem and this is the truth that our leaders should be bold enough to tell us. In almost everything we do, we always seek the easiest way out. We have absolutely no self-respect whatever as we are ever prepared to self-flagellate ourselves for whatever crumbs the Arab, the Asian or the European are willing to dole out to us. And we pretend not to understand why others continue to treat us with contempt even in our land! While the rest of humanity is making giant strides creating the things to make life more comfortable, our lives continue to be ruled by ignorance and superstitions. We still belief the fiction that bad lucks are caused by witches and wizards and could be banished by olive oil. We must certainly be the last species of humanity that still belief that barrenness could be cured by reciting some psalms and the tying of a talisman around a waist! – http://alaye.biz/we-didnt-vote-for-god/
About the Author Femi Akomolafe is a passionate Pan-Africanist. A columnist for the Accra-based Daily Dispatch newspaper and Correspondent for the New African magazine. Femi lives in both Europe and Africa, and writes regularly on Africa-related issues for various newspapers and magazines. Femi was the producer of the FOCUS ON AFRICANS TV Interview programme for the MultiTV Station. He is also the CEO of Alaye Dot Biz Limited Dot Biz, a Kasoa-based Multimedia organisation that specialises in Audio and Video Production. He loves to shoot and edit video documentaries. His highly-acclaimed books (“Africa: Destroyed by the gods,” “Africa: It shall be well,” “18 African Fables & Moonlight Stories” and “Ghana: Basic Facts + More”) are now available for sales at the following bookshops/offices:
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