Opinions of Friday, 12 January 2024

Columnist: Anthony Obeng Afrane

We need an Andrew Project to push the Elephant deep into the bush

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama

Leadership is all about relationships - growing trust, building teams, and utilising excellent interpersonal skills. Leaders pay a high price for ignoring the important process of building healthy relationships, and like a foundation for any well-constructed house, good management is the core foundation for leadership effectiveness, an area H.E. John Dramani Mahama has adequately paid his dues.

History is littered with catastrophic consequences of changing a good leader, and such poor judgments have had a serious negative impact on the destinies of some nations, ruining them beyond recovery.

One interesting example is what happened in Libya.

Col. Qaddaffi achieved the following under his rule: Literacy rose from 10% to 90%; undernourishment was at 2%, a figure lower than that of the US, free education from primary to university, and free healthcare.

Libya also ranked No. 53 on the United Nations Index of Human Development. He gave free land and seeds to anyone who wanted to farm. There was no homelessness since all citizens were given free homes and $500 deposited in the bank accounts of every Libyan every month under the oil- revenue sharing programme.

Even though some Libyans jubilated when Qaddaffi was killed, reminiscing the good old days, they have regretted the action that led to the overthrow and killing of their great leader because Libya has now collapsed.

This seems to be exactly what is playing out in Ghana for not allowing President John Mahama to continue his good works in 2016.

However, it is better late than never, the people of Ghana have another opportunity to correct the wrongs of the past on December 7, this year.

It would not be enough to choose JM if we really love him. We need to push ourselves further to ensure his massive victory in the 2024 elections for him to realise his vision for our dear nation.

And I have an idea. In John 1:41 of the Bible, when Andrew first met Jesus, the first thing he did was to tell his brother Simon about the good news. This is what is called the Andrew Project, and I want the same approach to be used to lead people to JM in the upcoming elections this year.