Otabil Breaks Silence on Cathedral but Not on GH90M Liquidity Scandal
TNR FILES
The general overseer of the International Central Gospel Church has broken his eight-year silence on the controversial National Cathedral project with a blistering attack on Ghanaians Christians whom he accuses of “small-minded” partisanship for undermining the $97 million edifice.
But the preacher’s sudden return to political commentary has reopened old wounds and uncomfortable questions about his own entanglement in Ghana’s most high-profile financial scandals.
Speaking at the annual Greater Works programme in Accra, Dr Mensa Otabil expressed frustration at the stalled project, arguing that “others are building things all over” while Ghanaians allowed politics to “crush our thinking”. “We are so small-minded, so small-minded that we allow politics to blind us,” he declared.
The outburst marks a dramatic reversal for a man who for more than eight years maintained a studied silence on national affairs, declaring in 2018 that he found Ghanaian media “depressing” and preferred watching National Geographic to avoid “contamination” of his soul. “I’ll watch cheetah, I’ll watch lion, I’ll watch antelope anytime,” he said at the time.
Otabil’s defence of the project comes despite overwhelming evidence of financial impropriety. An audit by Deloitte and Touche revealed troubling discrepancies: while the Office of the President confirmed total payments of GH¢113,040,564.86 to Sir David Adjaye & Associates Ltd, the firm reported receiving GH¢117,972,656.00 – an unexplained variance of GH¢4,932,091.14.
The audit further revealed that GH¢87,938,750.00 was paid by the Ministry of Finance between September 2018 and November 2019, with the Office of the President adding GH¢30,033,906.00 in two tranches in 2021.
The total public expenditure on the project now stands at approximately $98 million all from state coffers despite former President Nana Akufo-Addo’s promise to fund the cathedral through private donations.
The project’s collateral damage has been extensive. Judges’ bungalows, the scholarship secretariat, the passport office, the judicial training institute, and the residence of Mali’s ambassador were demolished. Affected occupiers were rehoused by the state at considerable cost, while lawsuits for compensation are pending.
Otabil’s sudden re-emergence on the Cathedral debate has drawn sharp rebukes from Ghanaians who point to his unaddressed role in the collapse of Capital Bank, where he served as non-executive board chairman.
The bank’s founder, William Ato Essien, was convicted of stealing over GH¢90 million of Bank of Ghana liquidity support and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment before being pardoned in 2025 on health grounds.
Despite evidence of governance failures at the bank, Otabil was never prosecuted. In August 2018, he issued a statement insisting he was “not involved in the day-to-day management and operations of the Bank” a defence that many found inadequate given his senior board position.
At the time, he complained in a sermon that people with “no right to insult” him were hurling abuse, adding: “You look at the person insulting you and the person, sometimes, himself looks like an insult.”
His ICGC church held a 3 per cent stake in the bank, yet the pastor faced no accountability. Critics have long alleged that his close ties to the Akufo-Addo administration shielded him from prosecution.
Otabil’s track record on public policy reveals a consistent pattern of preaching against programmes that benefit ordinary Ghanaians. In the lead-up to the 2016 elections, he preached against the Free Senior High School policy, arguing that fathers should pay fees to make their children responsible. When Radio Gold aired a soundbite of this sermon, Otabil promptly terminated his association with the station.
His educational philosophy stands in stark contrast to his personal choices. While Central University founded by ICGC operates as one of Ghana’s most expensive tertiary institutions with no special quotas or fee packages for church members, Otabil’s children were educated abroad. His youngest daughter, Baaba Aseda Otabil, graduated from Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Otabil’s connection to the Cathedral project has been the subject of confusion. In 2022, amid growing scrutiny, the Secretariat clarified that Otabil had not resigned but had “excused himself at the point of registration of the Directors in July 2019” effectively stepping back from formal responsibility while remaining “actively interested in the project”.
He did not, however, speak out against the project’s escalating costs or governance failures while they unfolded. His silence during the project’s most controversial phase when public funds were being dissipated is now contrasted with his defence of the concept when it no longer requires accountability.
President John Mahama ordered a forensic audit of the Cathedral project in July 2025, dissolving the Secretariat and directing the Auditor-General to initiate legal processes to dissolve the Board of Trustees. More than a year later, the findings remain unpublished.
The Auditor-General, Johnson Akuamuah Asiedu, has since retired and been replaced by Dr Pamela Graham, with no public update on the status of the audit.
The Deloitte report’s “damning” findings including unexplained variances, questionable consultancy fees, and lack of transparency have yet to be acted upon. No individual has been prosecuted.
Mensa Otabil’s sudden return to political preaching raises more questions than it answers. Why has he chosen now to defend a project mired in corruption? Why did he remain silent while millions of state funds were being wasted? And why should Ghanaians accept moral instruction from a man whose own institutions both religious and financial have escaped the scrutiny they deserve?
The National Cathedral is a monument not to God, but to Ghana’s culture of impunity where the powerful speak, the accountable remain silent, and the audit reports gather dust. Otabil’s sermon serves as a reminder that in Ghana’s corridors of power, the line between preacher and politician has become dangerously blurred.