By Nana Akua Tweneboah-Koduah
August 18, 2014

When Pastor Mensa Otabil, General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, (ICGC) cajoled his congregants to pay hefty tithes, offertory and “love” donations to support the establishment of the Central University College 17 years ago, little did they know that he will use deceptive means to steal the school from the church. Yes, Pastor Mensa Otabil stole the Central University College from the ICGC in what can be described as the biggest day-time robbery in the name of God, by claiming that the university belongs to him and his family.

Now here is how Pastor Otabil did it. After the CUC became well grounded, Pastor Mensa Otabil informed the top-guns in the church that he did establish the school with his own money; therefore, the school is his and that of his family. Not satisfied, the top-guns in the church battled him for control of the school claiming that Pastor Mensa Otabil used the church’s monies to start the school. Even though the fight was intensive and shrouded in secrecy, Pastor Otabil bullied his way through and eventually managed to snatch the Central University College from the church, whilst members of the church were held spellbound and gnashed their teeth.

Today, the Central University is the property of Pastor Mensa Otabil, who continues to preach to his congregants that they should not build up treasures on earth because they are all vanity and that they do not need those earthly things but should rather focus on heaven bound things. But to the amazement of people who have had a glimpse of the house that Pastor Mensa Otabil lives in at the Trasacco Valley and the kind of expensive stuff that have stuffed the house, this pastor is living in heaven on earth.

This is the man who before he goes to bed at night laughs big time at the members of the ICGC through whose sweat, pain, anguish, backs, shoulders and innocence he has made it big time and can therefore count himself very lucky as one of the richest men in Ghana today with chain of businesses ranging from schools to banks.

If you have the likes of Pastor Mensa Otabil leading the flock of Jesus of Christ who admonished those who listened to His teachings that we should not build up treasures on earth, then you will always continue to shake your head in disbelief.

I do not envy Pastor Mensa Otabil one bit, because his teachings are at variance with his opulence lifestyle, whereby he is reputed to listen to classical music in his ‘golden gardens’ at the Trasacco Valley on Sundays after church service.

Yet, we have Pastor Mensa Otabil who famously stated in March this year that prayers cannot change Ghana’s economy, always digging it at the ruling NDC government, as if all the problems confronting Ghana today came from the NDC.

We have in Ghana today hundreds of “pastors” robbing ordinary Ghanaians through brainwashing, sheer lies and thievery. They use certain quotations from the bible to bamboozle church goers into believing and justifying all their opulent and sometimes illicit lifestyles.

Otherwise, why should the all-knowing, all righteous, “Most Pious”, Pastor Mensa Otabil not concentrate on preaching righteousness, love for one another, simple lifestyle among Christians, inclusiveness and unity among others, but keep jumping every week to give vague lectures on how Christians can acquire wealth at all cost.

Please do not be fooled! God is not mocked! And mark my words very carefully. In five years to come, just five years, God is going to tumble and uproot all these lying pastors who wear long robes, have the best bible sound bites, live fat and healthy on the sweat of the needy in Ghana and have turned the houses of God into business entertainment centres.

Pastor Mensa Otabil does not need to love the NDC and its members. But as a pastor and a man of God he needs to have compassion for everybody under the sun. When the history books of Ghana are written in the next too distant future, Pastor Otabil will be found as the only pastor heading a major church in Ghana who stunned many Ghanaians by snubbing the burial service of the late President John Evans Atta Mills even when he was invited.

Indeed this is a pastor who could not withstand being outed for criticising Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his free Senior Secondary School mock, and held a furious press conference and angrily stated that, “This is defamatory. This is unethical. This is criminal. This is malicious. This is Machiavellian. This is evil.”

Pastor Mensa Otabil is back in the news again, this time claiming that Ghana’s boat is sinking and needed measures that were “intentional, decisive and methodical to save the sinking boat from choppy waters.

If Ghana is indeed sinking and need a new direction which is intentional, decisive and methodical, perhaps Mensa Otabil’s thievery ideas which he used in stealing the Central University College from the ICGC must be the last thing Ghanaians have to tap into.

Things have not gone well in Ghana in the last couple of months. We are all aware and we all “dey inside”. We live and die together. But there are a couple of people like Pastor Mensa Otabil who could do more to lift or steer the so-called sinking boat to safety. Again we have Mensa Otabil with thousands of God’s precious gifts under his care and who are in his imaginary sinking boat suffocating for water and crumbs from the table of Mensa Otabil.

But this man, Mensa Otabil, just sent his dogs to lick at their wounds. God is watching every move of ours. He cannot be mocked. Do you know the number of poor students who happen to attend ICGC and struggle to pay their monthly tithes? It is interesting to know that at the end of the day they are forced by businessman cum entrepreneur Mensa Otabil to cough up high tuition fees. He does not care how poor students in ICGC raise that money, because he is a capitalist and a shylock.

Pastor Mensa Otabil is gradually cornering himself and exposing his intent at every given turn. You don’t have to be a sage to know this man. His belly is full. And when the bellies of people are full, they tend to spew garbage thinking everybody will scramble for it. But we know better.

Anytime Pastor Mensa Otabil and his likes go to bed, they probably pray silently that Christ should postpone His Second Coming so that they can continue to rape their poor congregants. If Pastor Mensa Otabil believes that all what he does is perfect he will never dare go jogging surrounded by highly paid bodyguards. God is watching!

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com