The question the host of the programme, ‘Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF)’, Kweku Sintim-Misa asked Mr James Victor Gbeho to make brief assessments of some of our leaders.

Mr Gbeho, one of Ghana’s most experienced diplomats, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Member of Parliament, gave brief, but in his view, frank assessments on Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia (both deceased), ex-President Jerry John Rawlings and President John Kufuor.

Below are Mr Gbeho’s comments as broadcast in last Sunday’s (July 23) edition of TGIF:

On Dr kwame Nkrumah: “He was the greatest of them all. He had history thrust upon him and he showed not only by what he said but by what he did the true greatness that was his. He was a man of the people and he was a liberator so to speak. Many people do not realize that when he finally had to seek exile, he did it. He never saw his wife and children again. On the understanding that it will lead to lowering of morale of those who were in exile with him in Guinea if his wife and children came every other weekend to see him when the rest did not have anybody, so he willfully did not allow them to come.”

Dr K.A. Busia: “Dr Busia had a brain that very few can surpass. When you talked to Dr Busia, you realized that he was a learned person. As to his credentials as a political leader, I have certain reservations because he made a few monumental mistakes. He’s taking on the judges because they ruled against him, his constant quarrel with the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in his time were two actions of his which shouldn’t have happened. And then the Apollo 568. To use a section of the constitution to put 568 people out of work on one afternoon was heartless. The passing of the Aliens Compliance Order which made us drive out all foreigners, West Africans especially from this country in a very inhumane manner…”

“Jerry Rawlings is perhaps next to Kwame Nkrumah. Let me say this, he has a God-given ability to lead. He is rather unconventional in which he says but whatever he says eventually comes through in the long run. I think he is also, like Nkrumah, the man of the people. He worries about the ordinary person, he lives for the ordinary person and he has a modest style, personal style that he inflicted on all of us in his government. Some of the things we are seeing today could never have happened under Rawlings because he applied the rules rigorously to himself.”

“Mr. Kufuor I worked for when he was Deputy Minister of foreign Affairs in the Ministry under Dr Busia (in 1969). He is a rather quiet and reserved person. When he worked for us, his written work said it all for him. He was quite good. He was not a big platform speaker as we have seen in latter life. But I think that he also is humane in his own way but to a fault. He is like a parent who cannot shout on his children and so the children are running away with him. These may be uncharitable comments but they come from the bottom of my heart.”