A leading member of the erstwhile AFRC, Retired Major Kojo Boakye-Djan has described Ghana as a failed state. He says after almost 50 years of independence, the country has virtually nothing to show for it.

Major Boakye-Djan, who was an architect of the 1979 revolution, attributed the country?s failure to what he called the double standard of Ghanaians and the obsession to have leaders with academic laurels instead of managerial skills. He was commenting on the June 4 uprising on JOY FM?s super morning show.

?There are a lot of corporals and private soldiers who have PhDs now, who have MBAs now, who are running counties the size of Ghana?s budget. But because they are not socially positioned we tend to dismiss them as nincompoops and that is the problem this country faces and until we get around that, it is the social iniquities in this country that make victims of otherwise some intelligent people who are much more intelligent than you and me. And that we should stop this nonsense of looking at leadership in terms of people who are paper qualified,? he said.

Major Boakye-Djan the number two man in the Rawlings-led military junta defended the 1979 executions and criticized those who have questioned the basis for the killings.

He wondered why same questions are not being raised about anti-constitutional coups that led to the overthrow of leaders like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

He said his relation with the former president has been strained because of Rawlings and his NDC?s continued misrepresentation and exploitation of the principles of the revolution for political gains. He advised the NDC to rather concentrate on the celebration of the day the party was formed instead of June 4.