Ghana, Africa must stop begging foreigners for help – Otabil

Motivational Speaker Pastor Mensa Otabil says Ghana and the entire African Continent must stop begging for support from foreign countries and international agencies.

Dr Otabil says the dependency culture has virtually crippled Africa’s potential.

The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) gave the admonishing at the Church’s 30 anniversary programme at the Accra Sports stadium on March 2, 2014.

According to him, “not all help is good help. Actually some help can cripple you. Sometimes I wonder whether as Africans we have allowed ourselves to be crippled by our overdependence on foreigners.”

Likening the Continent to an immature butterfly that is helped by extraneous forces to come out of its cocoon instead of struggling to do so by itself, and by so doing, maturing independently, Dr Otabil says the help Africa goes begging for, is harming rather than helping the Continent.

“Instead of pushing out of our cocoons by ourselves, we beg for others to come help us. In the process we have become a crippled people. Look around us and see how we have crippled ourselves like that butterfly. Our farms are crippled. Our rivers are crippled. Our environment is crippled. Our industries are crippled. Our schools are crippled. Our local talents are crippled. Yet we look for some help from outside”, he said.

He observed: “We fail to see that the more we look up to others, the less we see of the strength that God has given to us. I believe it is time for us to push out of our cocoon and we have to do it ourselves. We have to become butterflies by struggling out of our cocoons ourselves. We have to become butterflies by struggling out of our cocoons ourselves. It will not be easy if we decide to do it ourselves. It will be heard. It will be tough. It will be painful but we will emerge with strong and capable wings”.

Using his church’s 30 year independent existence as an example, Dr Otabil said Ghana and Africa can cut the dependency cord if they will to do so.

“If a little Church in a classroom can do it, a whole nation, endowed with gold, oil and diamond should be able to do it. A whole Continent of 52 States with innumerable natural resources should be able to do it if we stretch our hands to God and work with the hands he has given us, we can make our lives and the lives of our children better. If we as a people should break the cycles of limitations we are encased in, we must reject dependency. Either on the prosperous relative, the government or the international donor society.”