The Drolor Centre for Strategic Leadership of the University of Professional Studies Accra (UPSA) has held a leadership symposium in Accra to discuss issues of national importance.

The symposium on the theme “Ghana’s development agenda: 58 years of independence, how and how not” was attended by policy makers, academia, journalists, students and other stakeholders to discuss issues ranging from the energy crisis, national development and strategic leadership.

Mr Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a media practitioner, said the situation where Ghana’s natural resources were being controlled and exploited by foreigners was the major cause of the country’s problem.

He therefore called for a change in paradigm shift and allow Ghanaians to control and exploit their own resources.

Mr Franklin Kudjoe, Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, a policy think-tank, expressed surprise over how Ghana’s gross domestic product grew by 15 per cent in 2011 and suddenly reduced below four per cent in 2015.

He called for the decentralization of decision makings to enable the participation of all Ghanaians in solving national problems.

Mr Kofi Jantuah, energy expert, said Ghana under the leadership of Dr Kwame Nkrumah was manufacturing everything and wondered why such a laudable policy was abandoned by subsequent governments.

He said Ghana must be fixed and such responsibility did not only lie on the politicians but the entire citizenry.

Dr Abu Sakara, 2012 Presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party, said gross mismanagement and abuse of the public purse was one of the causes of Ghana’s problems and urged those in leadership to fight the canker.

Professor Goski Alabi, Dean, School of Graduate Studies UPSA, called for the drafting and adoption of a national development plan to help guide the developmental process of the country.

Mr Ibrahim Murtala, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, said it was fundamentally and intellectually flawed to compare the growth of Ghana to that of Malaysia.

He said Malaysia, unlike Ghana, got political stability after independence whilst Ghana suffered many military overthrows, thereby stagnating its development.

He said one of the challenges Ghana faced as a result of military overthrows was the abolishing of free education after the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which ultimately affected the human resource base.

Speaking on the recent energy crisis, Mr Murtala said uncoordinated short term development plan to solve long term problems had resulted in the crisis and commended the government’s effort to fix the problem permanently.

He urged all to eschew corruption and confront such issues without any political colourisation.