Pastor Mensah Otabil
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Accra, Tuesday October 30, 2012
The highly polarised debate about whether senior
high school education should be free has heightened with the purported comment
by Pastor Mensa Otabil General Overseer of International Central Gospel Church
(ICGC) that it cannot be possible.
Media reports have it that the revered man of God made
the comment last Tuesday at one of the church’s programmes dubbed ‘Wholesome
Living’ but his office has reacted saying Pastor Otabil did not make such
comment on that occasion.
According to Reverend Kofi Okyere, a leading
pastor of ICGC, Pastor Otabil who owns a fee paying private university has
never hidden the fact that he is against the idea that education should be free
but the forum attributed to him was wrong.
Not certain about the period in which the ICGC
Overseer made the comment, Rev. Okyere told DAILY GUIDE via telephone
that it must have been made when the Pastor defended his fee paying policy when
the Central University College (CUC) was established.
“The statement was made when we had the university
running. This was the time in when the debate about tertiary education was
raging. The statement was made long time ago when no political party was even
promising free education.”
“We are not going to issue any statement”, when
asked by DAILY GUIDE to clarify what
was really said. “We do not want to be in the game of argument. He never made a
statement targeting any particular party. It is not our desire to fight political
ideology.”
Pastor Otabil on the tape has criticized free
education saying that anything free cannot be of good quality and will make
fathers irresponsible.
NPP
Disagrees
However, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which has
been touting the free SHS policy as their flagship manifesto promise said it
was very much committed to ensuring that the policy is implemented when given
the chance to govern after the December general elections.
A
statement issued in Accra yesterday and signed by Nana Akomea, the party’s
Communications Director said “The NPP has taken note of comments by Pastor
Mensa Otabil on free education. We hold Pastor Otabil in the highest regard
but, we disagree with his comments on state funding of free education.”
He
said the NPP’s free SHS would include quality with the teacher and infrastructure
development and expansion at the centre of the policy.
“Surely if every Ghanaian had a well
paying job, there may be no need for free SHS. But when can we reach the state
where everybody has a well paying job? And how about the millions of Ghanaian
parents who are not in formal employment or any employment at all and do not
receive salary? We do not believe free SHS will demean any parent.”
Nana Akomea noted that “if some of
these comments had been given full sway, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah may not have been
able to introduce Free SHS in the North of our country in the 1950s, which
initiative has been so beneficial to our country.”
He said the NPP remains committed to
spending tax payer’s monies in a judicious manner adding “We remain committed
to ensuring that every Ghanaian child has access to free SHS, including Senior
Vocational/Technical High School. The vast majority of our people have warmly
embraced the promise of the policy…We will not fail them.”
On his sermon which is in dispute, Pastor Otabil had
preached about responsible parenting and urged the congregant to “Take a
personal vow that you will not bring a child to this world who will live less
than the life you lived.”
He said “If your father took you to school up to
primary level go beyond that….now they say it is going to be free…so you have
no problem there…but you know the free one…free is good but if you really want
to give your children education you are going to pay…you will pay!”
He had said if they failed to pay for their
children’s education “The knowledge they will bring home to you…..(he laughs)
but it is minimal…if the government is going to take care of your children’s
education that is great but I don’t think a man should say well…now I can
produce children because…no! no! You have to be more responsible.”
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