First President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, is widely acknowledged and believed to be a transformational leader. He had visions and dreams. One was the total liberation of the African continent from colonial rule. He insisted and told the whole world that the African can manage his own affairs when given the chance.
By all standards Nkrumah displayed charisma and oratory skills. But he was not a great leader and could not have been a great leader just because he could talk. In fact in Ghana, he is remembered on daily basis for what legacy infrastructure he left the people than the words he spoke and the promises he made. In other words Nkrumah although a great speaker, was great because he envisioned, communicated it, rallied people around it and set to work to make the vision come true.
After decades of his death, we miss him dearly because the leadership we are following has fallen short again and again on the agenda for transformational development. That sober, energetic, self-motivated, moral, big and deep thinking political leader has been hard to find in one person, such as we had it in Nkrumah. The conditions around speak for themselves. The leaders are not leading. As a result, the nation is stagnant, though moving round in circles.
Every administration in the Fourth Republic has claimed to be the best government to have contributed the most by way of development since Nkrumah. The realities however, do not support the claims. If we go by my economic model that a developing economy like Ghana should record double digit GDP growth rates continuously for one decade to arrive at transformation, the statistics will expose all the regimes for their failures.
But our great nation seems to have settled for leadership that is not going anywhere. Since the regime change in the December 2016 general elections, I have waited for something new. But all I get is one disappointment after the other. Last week, the picture became clearer that there would be no change after the president nominated more ministers of state to a total of 110. Only the personalities managing the affairs of the country will change. And that sounds like a tragedy.
Anyone who has been involved in election campaigns in Ghana would be familiar with the spoils system and can easily tell why the president has yielded to the status quo and appointed the highest number of ministers ever in the history of Ghana. The justification he gives are not only weak but close to calling what is obviously black, white.
It sounds like the previous administration’s “deny, deny, deny” mantra. Deny even when you are caught red handed. The political machine will be triggered to give you cover for all your sins. So, they denied everything to the point of denying that they had lost the elections even after the official results had been declared. The posture of this new administration is no different. It is frightening and tearing apart the goodwill that objective citizens have for it. Can this posture yield double digit GDP continuously for ten years?
The Invisible Forces is an informal organisation within the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration. Many intra and inter party disturbances have been traced to the doorsteps of this informal group. Their involvement in the seizure of state vehicles, public installations such as toll booths, public toilets, markets, lorry parks, district assemblies, health insurance offices etc, are well known.
The NPP acting national chairman and deputy general secretary have been key supporters of the invisible forces. They have openly defended some of their condemnable actions. But last Sunday, tragedy struck at the Kintampo Waterfalls, where at least 20 students perished, when a big tree fell on them while they were swimming.
It has turned out that the invisible forces had seized the falls and sacked the professionals who were managing the facility following the regime change in the December 2016 elections. If the sacked professionals were in charge of the facility, they would have been charged for negligence of duty. Now that it has been confirmed that the invisible forces are in charge and have allegedly been paying proceeds of their operations to the vice chairman of the NPP in the Brong Ahafo Region, who will the state hold responsible for the tragedy?
Will the NPP leadership be rule of law compliant enough to let the law deal with their lawless informal invisible forces? Leadership is cause, everything else is the effect. We are watching!
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