Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has charged Ghanaians to among other things hold politicians who portray integrity and diligence while in office in high esteem and celebrate them.

According to the aspiring flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), there’s no motivation to be different from the ‘status quo’ when politicians are branded as corrupt on a daily basis.

“Political office holders have a lot of work to do and looking at the social pressure if they’re not very strong, if you don’t take care one will fall victim of political corruption. So those who are able to be strong enough to come out of successfully out of this, I think that we should celebrate them,” he noted.

Prof. Alabi further revealed that “…after the NDC lost the election in the year 2000, a lot of the former ministers, even district chief executives were queuing at ‘trotro’ stations. But when they were in office we thought they were amassing wealth”.

He continued that “they were insulted in office as corrupt, they came out and it was realized that they were not corrupt and again they were insulted for not building houses for themselves… I think that we should be very careful the way we handle some of these politicians with integrity.”

The former rector was speaking at the maiden annual lecture of UPSA Alumni on the theme ‘Sustainable Leadership: the panacea for modern-day political corruption in Africa.’

He advised student leaders participating in politics at the tertiary level to be mindful of falling prey to political corruption since it will translate in their works when they get the nod at the national level.

Prof. Alabi further stressed on the need to introduce sustainable leadership in the country.



“As a country, we can describe our leadership as sustainable when the expenditure of public funds is deemed to be forward thinking to guarantee a better future for the next generation. This requires attitudinal change and a new set of values in action, not those merely espoused,” he said.

The politician however lamented that wealth is demonized in the country and as a result many people do not know how to create it thus the belief that they cannot be rich without being corrupt.

The solution to this he averred will be to “build strong systems to check and control our leaders. This system when properly instituted can produce leaders, change leaders and punish leaders in order to ensure Ghanaians benefit from sustainable leadership.”