Communications Minister attacks Pastor Mensa Otabil over “sinking ship” comment

• Posted on August 15, 2014August 15, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Minister for Communications Dr. Edward Omane Boamah says though he is hesitant in touching God’s anointed, Pastor Mensa Otabil, he believes the latter’s conviction that Ghana’s boat was sinking and leadership failing was unfortunate.

“I have a limitation here, the good book says touch not my anointed” he told Joy News’ Beatrice Adu, but added, ” the kind of picture he is trying to paint is unfortunate”.

The response follows a message by the Head Pastor of the International Central Gospel Church at the Festival of Ideas 2014 last Thursday in which the pastor said there is the need for a decisive leadership response, one that follows the rules and seizes the urgency of the moment to save a sinking situation.

Using the story of the Titanic which sunk in April 1912 despite its claimed invincibility, Otabil said  Ghana needed measures that were “intentional, decisive and methodical” in saving the sinking boat from choppy waters.

He observed Ghana “appears [to be] on a permanent trajectory of deterioration…I find it difficult to see how things will get back to normal,” he hinted and charged all to “always prepare for the worst”.

Expressing displeasure, government’s communication accused Otabil of trying to paint a non-existent picture.

Discerning the preacher man’s message, Omane Boamah said he saw  “a certain push which if we are not careful may create the kind of situation he is trying to paint”.

The Communications Minister said government  was not in denial about the problematic state of the economy but dread and gloomy pictures are a stretch from reality, he noted.

“If you have an economy growing at 6% it is very difficult to paint the picture he is painting,” he underscored.

He emphasized some steps government was taking to respond to the record fall of the Ghana cedi.

Going to the IMF was one of them because it “will assist in restoring the kind of confidence the international community would want to see”.

By: Edwin Appiah|edwin.