Opinions of Saturday, 3 November 2012

Columnist: Wallis, Ekun

RE: Education Can never Be Free

RE: EDUCATION CAN NEVER BE FREE( MENSA OTABIL MUST SHUT THE HELL OFHIS MOUTH UP)

Mensa-Otabil (The Generaloverseer of ICGC) a pseudo-inspirational preacher is now demonstrating his spiritual dishonesty and intellectual destitution to the very world that has touted and hallowed him as an encouraging and uplifting preacher by now becoming a regrettably and pessimistically IMPOSSIBILITY AND CANNOT BE DONE PREACHER. Mensa Otabil, decades ago claimed in his sympathetic preachings that he was born by an abjectly poor and squatting parents in Sekondi and grew as a wailling squalor in the slum and gutters of kanda in Accra. He believes that the God of all possibility is the one who has lifted him from the abbys of obscurity into a spiritual pinnacle and lighthouse of Leadership. Otabil who in all his preaching has never minced words that with God who lifted him from tatters into hall of fame, is the God of possibility and can do for all, individually or nationally. Some of his preaching in the late 80's and the 90's were " How Big is your God", "God rules in the affairs of men", "Taking your Jericho" and some of those that he used to insult and steal members from the mainline churches like "Eunauchs In the King's Palace," "Come out and be separated" etc . Telling those in the mainline churches like Roman catholic, Anglican, Methodist etc that they were unfruitful and only Otabil's church was better to attend. What a narcissist in a greedy heights like Otabil. But now the same Otabil is saying that the God of possibilities yesterday has lost it today and therefore free education is impossible. What a grasshopper mentality. ( 29th October myjoyonline news). Otabil is now well placed. It cannot be gainsaid that Otabil who had it not been some good Samaritan he would have droped out of school, is now one of the well-to-do in ghana, therefore he could even send his children to school overseas if he wanted to. So now he has forgotten the God of possibility and has the impudence and timerity to throw cold water on what other needy children are desperately banking their future hope on.

Mensa Otabil must shut up. This pastor is too a hypocrite and double standard. He would preach in the church and tell all to believe because everything is possible with God. And now he is preaching impossibility becos he has opened a school with skyrocketing fees, that is why he adamantly sees free education as not feasible. Otabil has the penchant at involving in politics and critisizing politiicians so much but in his church Otabil is too autocratic and overbearing that no pastor ever questions what he says, else you be victimised, indicted, and given a bad name and hang you like a dog. It is therefore reprehensible and a sordid spectacle how this Otabil turns round and criticize politicians. He believes in speaking out his mind but disrespect the views of the people he is working with. Hence becoming a tin-god and posing like the olympic god zeus' with hegemonic powers that nobody suggest or disagrees with him in his one-man contractor church. In his Central Gospel Church Otabil enjoys and wield the popish pontificating powers of the doctrine of infallibility, in other words, he does not make a mistake and nobody is wiser like him. He is so convoluted and manipulating. He has created a spirit of apartheid and segregation among his pastors, encouraging character assassination and nobody dare to talk about in his church. He is condemning free education because of astronomical fees in his Otabil and his family kingdom central college. His spiritual hypocrisy is par excellence and legendary.

Otabil, said from the outset of his church building that he would never travel abroad to beg and and solicite the whiteman for his church because he is convinced that wherever you are God can bless you and even abundantly. And today look at Otabil's churches all over the world. Has Otabil lost that faith that the God of Heavens can do for a politician too with same vision and foresight, or Otabil has once again become too arrogant and dim-sighted with the blessing God has given him, so now he has forgotten, and trumpeting wornout and desuetude it cant be done mantra.? No wonder the good book is replete with countless instances how people forget so easily about awesomeness of God after God has bless them. Otabil was chased by NDC sometime ago for his religious rabble- rousing comments and submerged under water that he would not talk about what goes on the political landscape, but has resuffaced again with negative inspiration and balderdash. Is Otabil now not within the Joshua and caleb generation who said its possible to go to the promise land as he had preachd years ago? Or now Otabil is suffering from spiritual presbiopism and myopism of cant be done?

Otabil has a nerve of standing against the political leaders, but I want to ask Otabil that can that be possible among his pastor in his church? Infact this Otabil never believe in divergent views with his pastors. But a philosopher once said diversity is thinking independently together. From 1990 todate how many pastors has Otabil fought with due his petulance, apopletic, nettlesome and gross disrepect for dissenting views in his church? How many pastors who were sent to the dungeon villages to suffer with their families as squalors and sqatters, but try to reason with Otabil that it could not be done and he becomes acebically pissed off and labelled them badly with vampire around him?. Therefore most pastors humiliatingly left the church or were painstakingly thrown out due to disagreements. Why did Rev Obeng Darko, Rev Eric Kwapong Rev Ekow Eshun etc, and even Otabil's own stooge and robot called Rev. Frank Opoku Amoako that he Otabil used to destroy and torment many young pastors, and had left the church and now in West Virginia, as well as many others. Among other pastors that Otabil used as hydra-headed dogs and hyena ( in the 90's-2000) to terrorise their fellow pastors who held dissenting views were Anthony Cudjoe who has now gotten a cheap honorary doctrate from US village bible school, so he now calls himself Rev.Dr Anthony Cudjoe of spintex road ICGC, Rev.Dickson Sarpong Kumakuma of Koforidua ICGC, the immoral pastor Akwesi Prempeh, whose immorality cost his marriage before he run away to London, the epheumistical "simpa panyin" Rev Edwin Donkor, Otabil's closest right-hand senior stooge now in Londin King's Temple church branch, Rev Owusu kyereko now in Texes US branch and other remote controls and yesmen of Otabil.

Otabil travels the world but does he know that there is a free education on this earth? And if he is aware of that, what as a so called inspirational preacher makes him think that other people can do but cant be done in Ghana? In Europe in particular and the scandinavian countries, there is a free educaion from primary to university for every citizen. And even those countries dont have the natural resources like that of Ghana, only that things are managed well. I would like Otabil to know that this free education is a political issue now and a trumpcard of a political party, and therefore he should have remained neutral and not talked about it. Its a shame In the early 80's when Otabil begun his church, one of his clandestine pronouncement that made him to be enamored and endeared a lot of hearts towards him was his hynotizing preaching that God has called him to raise the image of the blackman. Among supposedly inspirational but bewitching preachings were the fact that God has blessed every nation in a particular environment to prosper. He made it abundantly clear that ability has nothing to do with the colour of the skin. However, and surprisingly, in a short time Otabil's mantra of raising the image of the blackman evaporated and fizzled out of his preaching books. Why? because it happened that Otabil's talk was not becoming his walk. At that time Otabil has received his two honorary doctrate degrees of Humanity and Divinity, and had become too bossy, autocratic, panjandrum on his fellow senior pastors who begun the church with him. There was in-fighting and power struggle, as a result Otabil created spies around him among his already mentioned sycophants and ass-lickers, whose main business was to search and report and destroy them. With attendant blackmailing and blacklisting, give a dog a bad name and hand him galore. People,I am talking about pastors and so called God's House.

Mensa Otabil, the Olympic god Zeus and his clanish cliques also segregated the pastor into viilage suffering, poverty stricken, animic-looking group and metroplis flamboyant posh cars riding pastors. And the latter were his sycophants, poodle, ponds, stooges, dimwits and boneheads that Otabil surreptitiously used to fight those who never shares his views. Otabil is an egocentric, selfish, braggadocious with bad attitude that anything that does not go his way he stands against it. The free education runs diametrically in colision with Otabil's exhorbitant and cut-throat Central University fees, so he has to pour cold water on it. But does Otabil ever allow and respect any of his pastors to disagree that it cant be done without victimization? Only the insiders and whistle blowers with independent mind could tell you the truth. Horrendous snakes, cockroaches, lizards, skeletons, deadbodies frogs abound in the so called glamour and glitz charismatic churches but you need to go near. Cant Otabil for a minute forget his empty pontification and wake up to the fact that free education also could be a vision of a politician who also believe that with God all things are possible like he has built his church and university out of nothing but with members' money? Otabil' stentorian voice against the possibility of free education attest to the fact and demonstrate abundantly that his much trumpeted inspirational preaching is a sham, veneer, a hoax and a facade of spirituality. Among Otabil's pastors, one ugly hidden intention that is known by some is that he uses people as disposable napkin or experimental laboretory guinea pig to achieve his goals and later fight you out of the church, particularly when becoming too outspoken. Otabil's arrogance and insults in his office against any pastor who does not share views with him, to say the least is despicable. This explains why in the mid of 90's to date, a lot of Otabil's pastors have exodus out of the ICGC. but the public know little about this.

As a matter of fact, the NDC's Asiedu Nketsia is one bad-mouthing hoodlum crook that I dont share his view but sometimes one may be impelled to agree with with him that the so called men of God must shut up because of their double-standards which makes them public well-behaved men of God and private anathemas and aberrants. That is not to be misunderstood that pastors have not the savvy to do politics. No that is not. In the Bible, true men of God like Joseph, Daniel and other prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah etc involved themselves in politics and other national issues of some kings because they were squeaky and unadulterated clean. Not Otabil and his likes who are blazingly and ballistically criticizing politicians but have swept their dirty shit under the carpets in their churches. Africa is said to be the most religious continent in the world. West Africa is said to be the most church attending in the continent, as well as Ghana being one of the most religious nations in the world. But do you know what?, judging from our so called religiousity vis- avis the way we behave, one can say unequivocally and unambiguously that all are hypocrisy, superficial spirituality and tapestry. About the spiritual frontliners like Otabil, the so called men of God are just publicly-looking puritans, ecclesiastical hypocrites, banal pontificants and spiritual malfescants. To all intents and purposes, this Otabil's U turn of possibility preacher to pessimistic propagandist is a glaring double-standardness that typifies and gives ample indication as to why when any nation in the continent is about to have elections, the whole world would be sitting on a hurting tenterhooks as to whether there will not be any mayhem and bloodshed. Why? If the dynamics of religion is nothing less than moral, social, spiritual excellence and love for one another as is piognantly spells out in all the religous books eg Bible, Koran etc. are trenchantly adhered to, Africa and for that matter Ghana would be a lighthouse of peace. A much touted religious nation like Ghana with about 60% christians who flood the church every weekdays and sundays should not have had any room of fear if we are true to the tenents of our various religious books and not just a sham. So who are those who go to church and mosque etc every day? What are Bibles and Korans doing in our hands? Where is the fear of God that is espoused in these Holy books by their adherents.

Do you know what? We go to our religious edifices to play religion, and worst of all are christians. Today the church has lost its value and it has become like a social club and a traditional obligation to go. We go there empty and come home worst than infiddle.Not forgetting those who go to theirs and come home as suicide bombers and they have a nerve to say their religion means peace. Even I heard mobile phone are even stolen in churches. African religiousity can better be called excessive compulsive religious disorder.. Recently, France had their elections of which Nicholas sarkozy, the former president was booted out very peacefully and with civility. The beauty was that it never crossed the minds of anybody that there could be even a little fight, let alone killings in France. And true to civility and decorum not even a mosquito got hurt. Few weeks away and America is also about to have their elections and it has never dawn on anyone whether somebody may step on another's foot. But the surprising scenario is, America is a place of proliferation and exhibition of guns, where guns are sold like Accra kenkey on the street. Yet nobody has raised a whimper of fear towards the impending elections. Dear readership, lets ask ourselves are these aforementioned countries and others like scandinavian countries where they are only secular and not even religious, but have always had an absolutely and impeccably peaceful elections, better fearers of God than Africans and for that matter Ghanaians? No, I dont think so. But its our selfish and greedy attitude that runs counter to our much touted religiousity.

It also boils down to the much talk about self-destructive, pull-him-down, the insatiable greedy attitude of win and use the power to suppress the rest, which has been described as a blackman is his own enemy. In the light of this, nobody is willing to accept defeat but to win by hook or crook, else take up arms. In conclusion, Mensa Otabil, a supposedly inspirational preacher who has shockingly made a chameleon about turned and pouring cold water on a politician's vision that it cannot be done and its impossible for God, is a disappointing and a worrying spectacle. A man of God like Otabil's calibre, and so called supremo of inspiration,should at this time not fuel tension and questions but tranquility and a soothing balm on the political landscape. Otabil should have known better that this is a political issue and therefore should have controlled his arrogance and self-style wiser-that-all, excersise neutrality and shut up. In the early 80's when Otabil believed that a blackman could raise a big church with resouces within, which politician came out to doubt him that it cant be done? Otabil is a shameless rabble-rouser hypocrite and politicians must watch and mark him carefully.

EKUN WALLIS

THE TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE