Bishop Obinim’s Errors 2011/08/24 at 1:11 am
It was most disheartening for any well-wisher of Bishop Daniel Obinim, head pastor of International Gods Way Ministry, to read that he has committed adultery with the wife of his own junior pastor, William Fobih. In fact, the story appears not to be incredible at first quick reading of the Daily Guide report of last three days, August 4, 2011, but a careful reading of the whole of it impacts its truthfulness on the mind.
To me, the whole revelation is surprising, on account of the fact that Bishop Obinim appears to have been sent by the Lord, owing to the miracles of, especially raising the dead, and immediately healing the incapacitated sick people, and prophesying with precision and preaching the Word of God with the utmost zeal. His general demeanour does not show him to be a pastor who can be linked to any corruption of any sort, particularly adultery. Indeed, it would have been difficult to associate any such sin with him, as his comportment did not brook any special friendliness with the members of his church, except a few quick-passing jokes. I myself have visited his church at Tema here, rather intermittently on five Tuesday; and as an old-time pastor in the healing, miracles and prophecy ministries, I have been much impressed by his charismatic works, even though he has his own charismatic deficiencies which sometimes showed up before me. On the whole, Obinim is a powerful pastor, who has glorified God with the spiritual graces given him.
It is therefore quite unusual, rather bizarre to see him fall into the devils trap of adultery by which his flock might be dispersed, with only a lesser number of members attending his church. This can be a pity. But there are three salient points which give Obinim some pluses in the whole sinful saga. One, he openly confessed that he has committed such a sin. Probably, his soul asked him to be bold to own that he had committed this sin of adultery. And he was bold to tell the truth. This shows how truthful Obinim is. Two, he did not conceal that sinful deed from his wife. Again he was bold to tell the wife. And that was a good plus. Three, that he and his wife fasted and prayed over it, thus showing some good repentance of his sin and praise-worthy fear of God. May God forgive him and bless his Ministry to prosper. What must be noted is that by my sympathy for the young pastor, I am not showing support for his commission of such a sin. I condemn such a behaviour, but he was ENTICED by the devil who was working hard through the lady, Gifty Pokua, with whom he committed such adultery.
But unfortunately, Bishop Obinim committed two bad errors in dealing with his temptress lady, Gifty Pokua. When the lady kept pestering him with unceasing advances to him even after the sexual affair, the meaning of these was that she loved him very much. Therefore Obinim should have used great tacts to get rid of her. What he should have done was to have invited the lady to appear before him and his wife, Florence, and to have promised that he was ready to give her ¢200 or ¢300 or thereabouts; but in order that her husband Willie might not question her about it, she should come with him, so that she might be given the money so to set up a small business, all for her loyalty and hard work to the church and her husbands unfailing assistance to Obinims preaching ministry. That indeed was to be explained to her as the separation money which was to be given to her to end all love matters. In my opinion, this could have ended all continued pestering of Gifty.
In the second place, the Bishop disgrace to Gifty before the entire congregation and the sacking of her from the church was most unpsychological. It was a second bad mistake. The lady should have been allowed to attend the church, and such open disgrace of her shouldnt have come on at all. In the third place, Bishop Obinim should have prayed and fasted to ask the Lord to change the mind of Gifty to be on her husband Willie alone, and that Gifty should stop bothering about him Obinim. And with proper repentance, serious prayers and fasting, the Lord would have given Obinim some peace of mind, as the ladys advances would have spiritually been curtailed. Yes, there are many temptresses in every church, and pastors should keep their eyes open to all their trickeries in order not to fall into their temptations which the Lord hates. Let all fellow pastors often read and seriously consider 1 Peter 5:8: Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith??. To stand firm in the faith is to read the Bible, fast and pray very often. It is only these that can spiritually defeat the devil who is envious of the fact that we pastors are turning peoples minds not to go his evil ways, but to go to God where happy heaven can be ours forever!
CAN CPP WIN BACK NDC?
Some years ago, when the Peoples Convention Party (PCP), the National Convention Party (NCP) and the Peoples National Convention (PNC) Nkrumaists signed the October 17 Unity Accord at the Arts Council auditorium, all with euphoric excitement, the previously subdued calls for the need to win back the Nkrumaists in the NDC suddenly became very vocal and rife.
Unfortunately, such calls were not sustained for any length of time, and therefore gradually became dead. Last week, similar calls to some two radio stations resurged the same singsong: ?come back, come back, come back to me ?oh, NDC Nkrumaists, come back to me?..!
Those callers were strongly arguing that if ever the strayed NDC Nkrumaists could be aware of the fact that they were prodigal sons who need to return to their ?CPP father,? a warm welcome could quickly be extended to them!
But these calls immediately raised eyebrows, with some people who entertained some serious cynicism as to this come-back possibility, whilst others expressed some optimism, based on some either well-defined psychological manouevres of the CPPists, or the force of time.
The arguments that the Nkrumaists family cannot unite with the NDC Nkrumaists is often pegged on two premises. Firstly, that if the NDC which is the offspring of the PNDC were an Nkrumaists grouping, it would not have, by its declarations and actions, endorsed the 1981 Rawlings coup which toppled the Nkrumaist PNP government led by Dr. Hilla Limann.
Secondly, that the NDC has overtly declared to the world that it is a third force in Ghanas politics, which means, it is independently outside both the old-time Nkrumaist and Danquah-Busia camps. Thus it cannot be involved in the affairs of either of the two conventional political groups. NDC considers itself to be an extraneous political entity which has evolved its own peculiar political ideology and panache completely different from that of the united Nkrumaists. Therefore, it is argued that the NDC Nkrumaists have long been reoriented by Rawlingss eclectic syndrome, a kind of political-psychological superiority complex resulting from juggling with different kinds of political ideologies borrowed from here and there ? Cuban communism, Libyan socialism, Nkrumaism, Danquah-Busiaism etc., thus making it call itself a third force, from the CPP and NPP.
However, CPP optimism sees this third-force concept itself as containing the seeds of self-destruction, because this NDC eclectic system, with its mix of some seemingly irreconcilable, ideological personalities who reportedly are engaged in behind-the-scenes fierce struggles for power as a result of differing political interests cannot make the NDC party stand the test of time. Several political analysts predict that once the charismatic presence of the unifying President Rawlings is no more in the lead of the NDC bandwagon, due to his death or incapacitation, separation of the class struggles will intensify, with the Danquah-Busia factions in the NDC trying vainly to slug it out with the larger Nkrumaist faction, whilst the very few revolutionary Rawlingsists will also manoeuvre to take control of NDC affairs. And that will undo the NDC. In this case, it is contended that the CPPists need not embark upon any come-back-to-me drive now, as time itself will bring back the NDC Nkrumaists to the CPP fold. It is even conjectured that when the NDC continues to taste electoral failures, the dominant Nkrumaists in the NDC apparatus will, out of frustration, go back to their natural habitat, the united Nkrumaist fold, and the Danquah-Busiasts will also take a dive back into their mainstream NPP, leaving the few disenchanted Rawlingsists in the lurch ? marking the beginning of the end of the NDC!
Indeed, the creation of a third fore political party has always been the focus of much speculation by political scientists. For instance, in his book, Fundamentals of Marxism – Leninisim, Vladimir Lenin once warned: But he who talks about third force deceives either himself or others. As a matter of fact, there is no third way between the bourgeoisie (the well-to-do ebi-te-yie class of people) and the proletatriat (the common mmoborowa class), between reaction and democracy.
He cautioned: Any attempt to form something in between, results in the fact that even wholly sincere people slip to one side or the other. There you are! The Bible also disapproves of third force practices. Says the Lord: I know your deeds that you are neither hot or cold. I wish you were either one or the other. So because you are neither hot or cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16). It is to be remembered that for all these years, there has been no definitive political ideology of this NDC third force- still the same hotchpotch syncretic ideologies of the socialist Nkrumaism and bourgeois capitalist Danquah-Busiaism. Ask yourself why there is still no third force; distinctive ideology?
In modern politics, philosophical dualism- the two-party approach- is the indisputable reality. So in the US, we have the traditional Republicans and Democrats always vying for political power, whilst US billionaire Ross Perots money-spinning attempts to create a third force political party have several times failed. In Britain, the third force Liberal Party is always sidelined in the political game of the two traditions: the Labour Party and the Conservatives. Therefore, CPP should try to regain its former entrenched first-force position by the hard work of all of its members.
In our Ghanaian society, it might be thought that the only way for the NDC third force to entrench itself well is to play the politics of divide-and-rule other currently resurrecting Nkrumaist front; or to negate their power with money and divisionist strategies. But so deeply engrained is the charisma of Dr Kwame Nkrumah that Nkrumaism is like the proverbial cork which can no longer be submerged in water, especially now that its faithful are becoming self-conscious of the need for unity. Soon, Nkrumaism will become a robust, resilient force, well-defined from the fires of negation-of-negation dialectics. Presently the CPP is undergoing what Dr. Kwame Nkrumah would describe as categorical conversion, a change into a titanic force ready to take off powerfully; and all things being equal in future, the CPP will accrete to itself the NDC Nkrumaists quite naturally and not by any systematic wooing.
It is my conviction that a return of NDC Nkrumaists to the CPP is possible, and can be so now, mostly through CPPs mergence with Obed Asamoahs Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), since DFP itself is centre-of-the-left political group, and is largely considered to have Nkrumaist leanings by which most NDC Nkrumaists are joining it. In any way, DFPs future fusion with CPP will amount to CPPs indirect absorption of NDC Nkrumaists. At any rate, it can be estimated that NDC Nkrumaists return to the CPP fold could be a matter of time!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful