Opinions of Sunday, 7 December 2014

Columnist: Akwah, Nana

“I’m not a bad person” says the president

But you’re dishonest

Ghana is the second leading gold producing country in Africa after South Africa, and ranked tenth in terms of world production of gold. The mineral deposits still in the ground provide a strong endowment to build a dynamic and robust economy. Other mineral include manganese, diamonds and bauxite.

The prime export of the country remains Cocoa. The country has a functioning timber industry. Gold is the most high-profile; commercially-mined mineral in Ghana and Ghana joined the ranks of oil exporting countries when it began commercial oil production on 15 December 2010.

In terms of natural resources, Ghana is among the world's richest on the African continent. It has gold, diamonds and a huge potential hydroelectric power, manganese, thousands of acres of untilled farmland, as well as other natural resources.

Yet, despite this vast resource the bulk of our people live as if they were citizens of deserts. Despite being home to hundreds of skilled and talented innovators, Ghana's leadership struggles to stimulate and retain its strongest resource — the people: They either live in unnecessary frustration, hopelessness and poverty, die of preventable disease, or run to the West to gain appreciation.

The President is quoted as saying that, "I'm not a bad person". He may not be a bad person; however, he is a very dishonest person. There is so much for most people to hold that perception about him. Owing to his dishonest posturing we are where we are.

As a people we fail to reason that "Corruption" is not only about stealing funds. It is also about putting bad people in prime positions. Yes, you're not a bad person but I'm afraid you're suffering from intellectual dishonesty and disability.

The greatest crisis in the country is not due to lack of resources, diseases, famine or even war. Since all of those things are tied to leadership in some capacity. It is the failure to produce the quality leadership to steer the country but has been taken over due to the Faustian, myopic, selfish, backward type of non-progressive leaders who are planted as candidates in our political landscape. Their top traits are either naive, vision-less, proxy implants, opportunistic/parasitic and are totally compromised.

There is something we all sometimes fail to recognize that’s, our moral duty, as citizens of this Earth, is to hold leadership accountable — and no one is beyond critique. Failure to critique leadership is far more than a sprightly fun opinion on a social platform.

We can ill afford to let nostalgia, hero worship, cultism, good PR and media charisma cover our ability to review all leaders in all their capacities. Without a sharp critical assessment of leadership and the duties of leadership, we will select entertainers, sweet faced teddy bears, orators, cool cats, as opposed to strong visionaries.

Therefore, instead of redressing ownership of our resources, we host the Breton Wood Institutions as opposed to empowering our people, we become better workers for the White oligarch, as opposed to being rich citizens in our rich land, and we are now consumers of Chinese junk. It is not a laughing matter, because millions of people are suffering and dying for no reason other than the terrible choices of these so-called leaders.

Listen to the President, "I'm not a bad person". How can you be a "good" but failed to fix the most pressing challenges of our nation with your bunch of sycophants and kleptocrats?

The President must be told in plain language that “not being bad person” do not in way exonerate him from been dishonest. The recent statement from his Ministers from the Education Ministry on the Free SHS is really nauseous and caustic.

There are those who claim openly but falsely to favor freedom and yet belittle or denigrate agitation, they are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle, such as workers/labor struggle. We must understand that power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

The Good Book states "By their fruit, you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?"

The blind cannot lead the sighted, the uninformed cannot lead the wise, and the unskilled cannot direct the skilled. And those that are deaf cannot define the sound. For in most countries everywhere in this world the current the structure rarely rewards merit. So the person running the center for the youth is squandering not only trust, but the potential of those he mismanages. He is not only wasting opportunities, but the future of a nation.

Corruption is not only about stealing funds. It is also about putting bad people in prime positions: People who have neither the passion (candor) nor the qualification (skills) to do the job. This form of corruption is crippling the "Nation's" development.

In this NDC/Mahama led Government you can get a department full of village friend none with the attributes or qualifications to do the post other than being clan members. The price of nepotism causes a complete failure of a country, or an organization to develop.

Corruption is worse than massacre. It kills more than warfare; it takes land and moneys to build a hospital and buys a private jet, and in the end condemning thousands of people over multiply generations to die of curable diseases. And the indirect consequences are that, from that poverty pool may be the next brains to lead Ghana out of this quagmire.

It has been said that, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty, Thomas Jefferson.

As a country we should start to hold leadership accountable. The "middle class" must lead the way out, as the continued silence give an impression that all is well.

Leadership should never be according to who shouts the loudest, control, or who can make the best speeches.

In this life, there is the face of power, behind the face are those who have the best insight, and have a capability, integrity and the skills to best get results; they should be speedily selected as most people fail to distinguish between leaders.

Real leaders do not prey and play on the strong feelings and prejudices of the people they serve. They instruct them in ways which foster their development and enhance the quality of their lives.

They are the new leaders that will bring hope to the people that will put the Ghanaian on pedestals of economic emancipation that are hidden or lost to mismanagement and corruption. Or betray them for Faustian gains.

Our leadership and actually our entire disposition as a people are articulated on degrees of dependency. It is no surprise someone else makes the final product, and builds the roads for us to jostle for crumbles.

We define success as a good job, a loan from a bank to buy a luxury SUV, tenure-ship at an acclaimed University, and how to get a grant to do research. This mentality goes right the way through, from the politicians and to the academics writing books about the bad leadership. So there is no confusion what the issue is, but how to fix it is what the article sought to implore, as leadership in all sectors of our country is defined along this mindset.

Our President John Mahama says he is not globetrotting but is gradually turning into a Puppet, an aid dependent beggar.

To say the least, Mahama is the most dishonest individual to ever surface in the political life of this country. He lied to himself, his constituents, his colleagues in the Parliament, members of own political party, the Ghanaian people and the world, that "Free SHS" is a mirage.

Mr. President, stop the runway horse - the truth, from galloping over the cliff.