The head pastor of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Dr. Mensa Otabil has stated that the only way Ghana and Africa can be successful is if government's do away with a "siege mentality".
Mensa Otabil, in a speech at the Festival of Ideas in Accra, intimated that all the nice ideas that government comes up with will never materialize if Africans fail to act and think boldly.
According to Mensa Otabil, while it is “great to be part of an economy created by others,” the motivational speaker said Africa “must transition and make our own stories.”
The general overseer of the ICGC does not believe why Ghana and other African countries rely on grants and aid when indeed creative ideas could change things around.
“The future of our growth will be in the hands of private people and not the government. We must use policy and regulation to build people,” he stated adding, “there have to be people who will step out and do the bold things.”
Mensa Otabil may have mustered the courage to make such a brilliant presentation just some moments after revelations on the defunct Capital Bank was made by an audit report from the Bank of Ghana.
The audit report, which showed how top managers of Capital Bank misapplied funds of customers by a tune of 610 million cedis raised questions over the role Mensa Otabil played as board chairman of the defunct bank.
Meanwhile, Mensa Otabil in a response to all these claims issued a press statement detailing why he could not be implicated in the said scandal.
The pastor argued that he was a non-executive board chairman and thus was not responsible for the day to day activities of the bank.
No matter his argument, the Bank of Ghana and Parliament has opened fresh investigations into the matter. Information minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has assured that all 'bank fraudsters' implicated in the investigation will be prosecuted.
