<<Print>>

Pastor Mensa Otabil says there�s nothing excellent about African Leaders for them to bear the title �His Excellency�. Speaking about the qualities of a good Leader at his Church�s Greater Works 2013 Conference in Ghana�s national capital Accra, Dr. Mensa Otabil said: �African Leaders like �your Excellency�, �his Excellency�; I mean what is excellent about you in the first place for you to be called Excellency?� He wondered. �I mean let�s start getting rid of this obsession with titles and position and honourable and Pastor and Reverend�, the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) General Overseer advised. According to him, �one of the things I�ve come to know is that sometimes the worst thing you can give to a person is a title. A person is good until he�s given a title. People serve in the Church until you call them Pastor and they lose their brains. People serve in their communities until they call them �honourable� and all of a sudden they walk differently, talk differently and the things that they used to do that made them have the opportunity is gone because we think leadership is the adornment [of titles] but Leadership is who you are without a title. Forget about your title�. Citing the practice in his Church an example worth emulating, Pastor Mensa Otabil said: ��When we advertise our speakers we don�t [add] Archbishop so and so; Bishop so and so; His Lordship so and so; it�s just your name. When my parents gave birth to me I was Mensa Otabil; they didn�t say this is the General Overseer. If you are not comfortable with your name, [then] you are not comfortable with yourself�. As far as Pastor Mensa Otabil is concerned, a good leader is not known by what title he holds or how famous he is or how wealthy he is. ��Leaders are leaders before they start leading�, he noted. He observed that one of the challenges African leaders have is their obsession with titles. ��There�s a particular African President whose name comes after about six titles; by the time you get to his name you�ve forgotten whom you are talking about�, he observed.