“Things Fall apart, the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosened upon the earth”.

This is a famous quote from one of Africa’s literary scholars, Chinua Achebe. His apocalyptic description of events in an African community setting that provided the background for his famous novel many years ago aptly describes the current situation of the Ghanaian community leadership in Toronto. The leadership of the Ghanaian Canadian Association of Ontario who claim to be responsible for the development, fortunes and welfare of the Ghanaian Community in Toronto seem to be missing in action (MIA) for more than a year now. This leadership, elected originally for a two-year term, has been in office for over five years with virtually nothing to show, like its predecessor, for progress. The GCAO leadership has resisted all calls and attempts by community members for accountability and to follow the constitutional path of conducting elections for new leadership.   It is significant, for purposes of analysis, to note that the GCAO leadership consists of highly-trained professionals in various fields whose election five years ago generated some excitement and glimmer of hope that they would take the development and welfare of the Ghanaian Community to new heights. Against the background of the fact that Toronto, with a Ghanaian community numbering over seventy thousand, is the nerve-center of the Ghanaian communities in Canada. The other Ghanaian communities in Canada naturally look up to Toronto for leadership. It is sad to note that they have been woefully disappointed.   The mood of the Ghanaian Community in Toronto itself is one of extreme disillusionment to say the least. The community has watched its elected leadership engage in all kinds of actions, some irresponsible, that do nothing to enhance the welfare of the community. The leadership have fought among themselves, some threatened at some point to take others to court; they have tried to isolate some of their own members at times when they needed to stick together and show a common sense of purpose.  The most damaging of all their actions which seem to have sapped the wind out of their sail is the misguided move to “acquire” a community center since that was one of their cardinal platforms under which they rode into office. The GCAO leadership kept lying to the community that they had acquired a community center until it became known that the “center” was actually a rented premises financed by contributions from some ethnic associations in the community under the guise of investment. The details of the lease agreement of these premises were so shocking that even a first year accounting student would not have signed such a deal. But the leadership, among whom are a number of well-trained finance and accounting officers, entered into this deal in the name of the community. In the end, they had to swallow a bitter pill when the landlord locked them out of the premises tarnishing the image of the whole community. The associations that were hoodwinked into doling out money for this misguided enterprise are now out in the hole for their money.   The leadership of the GCAO seem to have disappeared after the failed “Community Center” adventure. This situation of a leadership vacuum cannot be allowed to continue. The larger community will be the losers in the long run. The community is suffering and paying the price for the lack of leadership to tackle the teeming problems facing the community.   We urgently call on the Board of Directors or Council of Advisors of the Association (whatever they also call themselves) to rise up to the plate and organize elections to get fresh leadership for the Ghanaian Community in Toronto. The present crop of leaders is a spent force. They have outlived their usefulness and should not be allowed to continue to mess up the fortunes of the community. WE ARE WATCHING AND WAITING!!!