The lead speaker at the third June 4 Revolutionary lecture, Professor John Bright Kobla Aheto, says for Ghana to achieve good public governance, it needs a dynamic and broad-minded leader who is an upright steward and possesses a flawless vision to pioneer the country’s transformation.
He described the current political dispensation as a big joke and said the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress had “completely failed the nation”.
Professor Aheto said in view of the gross retrogression of our nation, the only viable thing to do is to resort to sustainable good governance as a national agenda.
The keynote speaker said though there is a deliberate assault on institutions of state, the civil service now an order-taking institution, the bench packed to the limit and things falling apart, we are pretending everything is okay.
Professor Aheto said ingredients needed to achieve good public governance included the independence and integrity of all national administrative institutions and arms of government, holistic, integrated, critical and creative thinking as well as a conscious effort to protect the rights of the citizenry.
Delivering the lecture at the R.S. Amegashie Hall of the University of Ghana Business School on Wednesday, Professor Aheto who is a management expert, said the pillars of public governance included integrity, accountability, fairness and equity, transparency and independence.
“Public governance implies that the leaders, politicians, directors, civil servants and public servants are accountable to the nation and citizenry,” Professor Aheto said.
The lecture which was under the theme, “Developing a national character for sustainable good governance” was part of activities marking the 40th anniversary of the June 4 uprising.
Professor Aheto said June 4 was an unstoppable and easily predictable insurrection which was borne out of a rare combination of devastating and endemic corruption, bad governance, lack of discipline, impunity by leaders in the face of deep-rooted frustration of the masses and the bankruptcy of political governance.
Other speakers at the event were General Nunoo Mensah, Prof Joshua Alabi, Professor John Gatsi and Goosie Tanoh.