Reverend Mensah Otabil is one of our nation’s towering religious figures. He presides over a large congregation and has put his immense wealth and influence to good use.
But that does not negate the fact Mr. Otabil is overly political and is a partisan hack. He does not bother to hide his political affiliations; he wears them proudly and unabashedly on his sleeves.
He has dabbled in politics much to the consternation of many in the faith and religious community. And he has glaringly failed in the process to distinguish between religion and politics. In fact, he has on many occasions crossed the delicate line between the two dynamics.
His foray into politics is deliberate and carefully orchestrated to maximize the advantages that he foresaw will accrue to him down the road.
That Otabil was diametrically opposed to the NDC was common knowledge; he became one of the leading critics of former President John Mahama. All of his criticism on close scrutiny was a calculated political ploy.
Virulent, unapologetic and determined, Otabil never relented. In fact, there wasn’t a policy formulated by Mr. Mahama that met the approval of Otabil. He savaged everything.
Now the tide has turned against Rev. Otabil and he is quaking with fear in his boots. Accused of financial malfeasance in the collapse of Capital Bank, where he was the head of the board of directors, Otabil is doing all he can to wash his hands clean from the scandal that has crippled thousands of depositors and shaken faith in our banking system.
Subsequently, he has used the media and his pulpit to vigorously denied complicity in the fall of the bank. But, unfortunately for the pastor, Ghanaians aren’t buying his assertions of innocence and his rather ridiculous claims that he was not involved in the day to day management of the failed financial institution.
They are calling for a proper accounting of what really went wrong with Capital bank. The pastor’s predicament has gladdened the hearts of thousands. In fact, they want the head of the famous preacher on a silver platter.
Judging from the responses to the Otabil scandal on social media, a majority of Ghanaians would rather Pastor Otabil cool his heels in jail than preach to his vastly loving congregation on a sunny Sunday morning.
They want him arrested immediately and prosecuted without fail, yet others caution that until all the evidence is collected, it will too early and unjust to pin the rap on Otabil.
Whatever befalls Mr.Otabil, he brought it upon himself. His carefully built reputation now lies in ruins and shattered completely. He may never recover from this devastating scandal.
When supposedly men of God stray beyond the four walls of a church and go where they shouldn’t be, they invariably court trouble. That is exactly what has happened to Reverend Otabil.
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