Culture of resignation    

There is a culture that permeates all aspects of leadership in the advanced countries which I believe has contributed to the success in all aspects of their national lives.  Citizens strive to excel so that they will not find themselves in a situation where they would have failed, to necessitate a decision to resign.  

Countries where failure is frowned upon, it pushes the citizens to strive for success.  In our part of the world, failure and mediocrity has become an accepted norm and therefore, there is no shame in failing in a particular position of leadership.  

A head of an organisation mismanages the place and he does not see the need for him to resign.  The appointing authority does not also see the need to sack him and so the merry go round continues.  

It becomes friends and family as usual and if care is not taken, the rest of the world will leave us far, far behind.

The practice of resignation in parts of the world for failure in some parts of the world has to be institutionalised in our country too.  It encourages the principle of accountability which is good for any organisation, sector of an economy or a country.  

It promotes good governance, a necessary ingredient in the growth of the economy of any country.  

When this practice becomes a culture, every individual, privileged to hold a position of trust, gives his or her full attention to the job assigned him or her, to ensure that objectives are achieved.  

This trickles down to every individual down the chain of command and there are no rooms for errors.  

That is how efficient systems are built over time and this is the difference between advanced nations and third world countries.  

Where systems are designed such that people take responsibility for things that go wrong under their supervision or ultimate responsibility, there is evidence of development.

There are a few people that I admire in Ghana as far as this culture of resignation based on principled stance. One of them is the late Mrs Emma Mitchell.  She was a cabinet member but chose to resign after the confrontation between late President Jerry Rawlings and late Vice President Kow Akaah. 

 She was not prepared to be part of a cabinet which was lying to the general public that Rawlings did not assault Akaah.  

She was of the conviction that telling the truth is more honourable than telling lies and that if she was bound by confidentiality oaths to tell a lie, then she would resign and she did exactly that.  

That is how we build a culture of truth and accountability. We have people in positions who have not lived up to expectation but are still holding on to their positions not prepared to let go of it.  

This is a clear case of display of selfishness, trying to be a Boss instead of a Servant to serve the people, which leadership is all about.

The ineffectiveness of some leaders, often result in waste of resources which could have been channeled to other sectors of the economy which could have been more productive. A culture of voluntary resignation must be advocated for by all stakeholders, especially the CSOs, traditional leaders and the clergy.  

This is the only way the needed growth in every sector of our national life would manifest.  

Presidents, Prime Ministers, heads of reputable organisations have voluntarily resigned by taking ultimate responsibility and it is about time, we started seeing it manifest in our country.  

The people in charge of our sports especially our soccer, can initiate this long desired culture and resign in view of the embarrassment witnessed from the defeat of the Black Stars by Gambia. God bless.

BY LAUD KISS-MENSAH

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