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Mensa Otabil is
talking rubbish again
By Dr.
Michael J.K. Bokor
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Folks, I have had several occasions to take
on Re. Mensa Otabil and charlatans of his
ilk who are abusing the pulpit to do dirty
politics. I haven’t regretted for putting
such politically motivated “Men-of-God”
where they belong in public discourse
regarding the challenges of development
facing our country. They are self-seeking
noise makers to disregard.
Here is Mensa Otabil again, spewing pure
garbage to annoy me. Let’s hear him:
“Ghanaians should not be content with the
provision of basic goods and services such
as roads, water and electricity by the
state…. We can’t just be happy because a
road has been tarred. We can’t just be happy
that we didn’t have electricity, now we have
electricity. We can’t be happy with minimals”.
Then again, he says “So, I hope that as we
celebrate this story, and I like how it was
put earlier that it’s a revolution and it’s
really a revolution, we have to battle, we
have to fight, we have to wrest the destiny
of our nation from incompetence and from
people, who have determined to run us to the
ground. We have to wrest the nation back and
control it as citizens of this country and
that is the challenge I want to put to you.”
(See
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Don-t-be-happy-with-tarred-roads-electricity-416577)
Nonsense. Pure nonsense!! Has Mensa Otabil
ever visited any of the deprived communities
now enjoying the amenities being provided by
the government to assess the people's
feelings? If he hasn't, he should do so
immediately to be properly informed. If he
has, he won't go this way.
Does Mensa Otabil know the value of such
projects to a people who have over the years
been denied such projects and their
attendant benefits? Does he ever use any of
the development projects provided by the
government? If he does, he will be the most
ungrateful person on earth to not appreciate
the government for providing such amenities.
In effect, Mensa Otabil has launched a
senseless attack on the government for
serving the needs of the people, using
public funds to provide direly needed
amenities to improve living conditions. It
is a huge insult to the users of such
amenities too.
Is Mensa Otabil ever informed about the
cries of Ghanaians to the government to
provide such amenities so they could also
move with the times? And is he aware of
numerous petitions written to the government
on that score and the threats by neglected
communities not to participate in the
electoral/political process unless their bad
roads are tarred, school buildings
rehabilitated or new ones built for them,
electricity provided for them, and good
drinking water given them?
Is Mensa Otabil ever sensitive to the plight
of the deprived communities in Ghana that
are gradually being served with these
amenities? Does he know how happy people in
such communities become when the government
heeds their plea to provide the essential
amenities for them to enjoy? If he does he
won’t talk so loosely and unconscionably.
Is he happy that the university that he has
established is serving the needs of the
people but shouldn’t be acknowledged as
such? Or that the beneficiaries should ask
him to shut down the university because it
is not the be-it-all-and-end-it-all for them
in life? How low couldn’t he have stooped in
his madness to denigrate the government for
purposes of sustaining the rogue politics of
those he is in bed with?
Such a “Man-of-God” is no “Man-of-God”,
after all. If he were, he should be the
first to acknowledge the fact that the
development projects are initiated by the
government after a careful assessment of the
needs of the people and how to ensure that
they are given their part of the national
cake to enjoy.
What he doesn’t know is that he is playing
into the hands of those vile politicians
whose new-fangled buzz-word of
“incompetence” defines their own lack of
vision. They are bandying that vacuous word
about as if it is enough to tell Ghanaians
what they have up their sleeves to outdo
President Mahama and his team. Standing
outside and looking into happenings in
government isn’t the same as really being in
government and seeing from within what is
happening.
Whatever Ghanaians need to live their lives
in decency will be provided by the political
authority that they have put in power to
manage public funds (After all, they pay
taxes and should have their interests
catered for. If it is development projects
that will serve their needs, they must be
provided; and there is nothing wrong with
doing so). Providing such projects doesn’t
preclude any higher level thinking by the
people, especially if they know how to do
things to keep the government on its toes.
Folks, I see nothing wrong with the
provision of development projects all over
the country. Tarring roads is a major
initiative to be lauded. Opening up the
communication network as such expedites
mobility and promotes economic activities
that eventually reinforce efforts at
national development. Why can’t Mensa Otabil
and those thinking like him take off their
blinkers for once to see things beyond their
noses? (And Mensa Otabil has a big nose at
that!!).
Those of us living outside Ghana can tell
the difference between the wretched state in
which our people live because of lack of
social amenities of the sort that the Mahama-led
administration and its predecessors have
given the needy people.
Hospitals and other health centres are being
built to cater for their health needs;
schools are set up to provide opportunities
for children to be formally educated; roads
are tarred to ensure mobility; airports are
built and rehabilitated to allow for easy
movement to and from the country; markets
are constructed and furnished to improve the
health situation; many other facilities are
provided to ease the burden on the
people—and all these projects shouldn't be
appreciated? And the people shouldn't be
happy that the government is using their tax
money (including whatever donors give Ghana)
to serve their needs?
Why does Mensa Otabil think that Akufo-Addo
is still forcing to grab the attention of a
segment of the deprived population living in
the "Zongos" with his talk of establishing a
"Zongo Development Fund" or to build hostels
for Kakyayei? Or to make senior high school
education free in Ghana? And he expects the
people not to be happy that their needs are
being served?
Indeed, Mensa Otabil’s kind of dirty
politics under the aegis of religion is
appalling. Ever since he chose to see
nothing good about an NDC government in
power, he has carved a negative path to
chart in public discourse and is known as
such. When Kufuor entered office, he was
instrumental in the activities of the
so-called “Men-of-God”, led by the Methodist
Samuel Asante-Antwi to denigrate Rawlings
and his administration. They saw nothing
wrong about the development project-focused
efforts of the Kufuor government; and for
Election 2008, nothing fed the NPP’s
electioneering campaign messages more than
the development projects and social
interventionist programmes (NHIS,
Metro-Transport, Schools Feeding Programme,
etc.) that Kufuor had carried out. They
wished Akufo-Addo had won, but for reasons
best known to them, the voters rejected him
as they did again at Election 2012.
Since then, the Mensa Otabils have lost
their bearings and momentum and are firing
on all cylinders but missing the target.
Their kind of dirty politics has refused to
wash with the people because the people know
better!! And now that they have chosen the
wrong topic for their vituperation, they are
only fertilizing the ground for another
defeat for Akufo-Addo thereby.
Interestingly, Asante-Antwi has planted
himself deeply in the NPP fold where he is
presiding over the Sanhedrin tearing the
party apart. Cowards like Mensa Otabil are
afraid to declare their political stance but
easily betray such a penchant through their
public posturing and rogue politics under
the guise of religion. God sees them through
in all that they do and say; and we will
also dent holes in their calling as such.
True “Men-of-God” work for peace, unity, and
progress, not what emanates from the vaul;t
of the Mensa Otabils. Shame unto them!!
If Mensa Otabil thinks he has the solution
to Ghana’s
If Mensa
Otabil thinks he has the solution to Ghana’s
problems, why can’t he throw away his
cassock (if he ever has one) and join the
struggle? In other countries, “Men-of-God”
have vigorously participated in the
political process, seeking the people’s
mandate to rule. Examples exist all over the
world. I challenge Mensa Otabil to do same
and stop hiding behind the smokescreen that
he has created as a so-called “inspirational
speaker” to do dirty politics. If he thinks
he has the solution to Ghana’s problems, let
him step forward to contest the general
elections and stop annoying us with his kind
of vain effusions. A true “Man-of-God” sees
things from a wider angle and comments on
them to build, not to destroy.
If such a "Man-of-God" believes his own
Biblical eye-opening maxim that it is God
who appoints Kings, I don't think they will
toe the kind of crooked path that they have
chosen all these years that the Ghanaian
electorate have rejected their sacred cow in
his bid to rule them.
Characters like him continue to embolden me
to ask that the authorities should be bold
enough to change the country’s tax regime
for pastors/leaders of churches to pay tax
as responsible citizens should. If I had the
power to change that system, I won’t
hesitate at all to rope in this Mensa Otabil
and all the charlatans abusing the loopholes
in our system to turn themselves into
potentates—of the kind that God himself
won’t tolerate!!
For now, I will dismiss him as an irritant.
Those for him the development projects (good
roads, telecommunication, potable water,
electricity, etc.) are provided know the
value of such amenities and will continue to
praise the government for serving their
needs. Ingrates of Mensa Otabil’s kind can
go to blazes!!
I shall return…
• E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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to continue the conversation.
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