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Leadership of excellence required in Africa
The National House of Chiefs operating in the kingdom of Ali Baba community was made up of various leaders who did what they could to develop their kingdom. The kingdom was made up of 12 villages, each under a leader or chief who was expected to develop his own village with the support of his own people.
They came together in form of a group to form a National House of Chiefs like what we have in Ghana today. Some of the chiefs were very progressive but others were not because they could not influence their subjects to move along with them for the betterment of society. Many others were also discouraged from pursuing vigorous agenda geared towards the ultimate goal of progressive development.
HANDFUL OF LEADERS
There were a handful of leaders within that National House of Chiefs who worked so hard that their communities were soon to be seen as exemplary when compared with other communities in that kingdom. It may sound strange to speak of a kingdom with several chiefs spearheading their affairs of each community and thereby bringing them together in form of a National House of Chiefs.
That was their own choice and if they were satisfied with that arrangement, no one from another area could begrudge them. In other words, if they found the arrangement suitable to their own interests and development, they were not prepared to accept any criticism from any quarters. Africa constitutes one large kingdom in a sense but there are many countries that form part of this continent.
CONTINENTAL DREAM
This explains why the early leaders of the continent under Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Jomo Kenyatta and many others found it necessary to dream of one continent in form of a United States of Africa. This could not go beyond the envisaged dream as a result of which the continent is still fragmented into different countries even though many Africans believe that one large “Kingdom” or continent could have been to the benefit of all Africans.
WHY WAS THIS NOT MADE POSSIBLE?
The colonial interests manipulated many of the African leaders at the time even though some of them were genuinely committed to the idea of one continental “Kingdom”. Again, some of the leaders at the time were more influenced by their parochial passion of not letting go the small area over which they were ruling as leaders.
Perhaps, they preferred to be called presidents of smaller areas instead of falling into the larger vision of one kingdom, after giving out parts of their own countries, for the common good in line with the entire continental interest of the African “Kingdom”.
Today, each of the states in Africa has realised the need to fight for this “Kingdom”, thereby influencing one another to trade among themselves in form of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The AfCFTA, as is well known, forms the largest trading bloc in the whole world. It is meant to accelerate intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations.
NUMEROUS CONTINENTAL CHALLENGES
In view of the numerous challenges the African continent faces today, there is no doubt that the leadership style in Africa is required to be propelled to higher levels where excellence would become the hallmark of performance to bring in the desired good governance, progress and economic development.
This is due to the availability and also abundance of natural resources on the continent. To be able to achieve smooth continental economic recovery and growth, a set of certain fundamentals will have to be put in place by each African country. One of them is getting sound programmes in place for rapid economic growth.
NEED FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE
Good governance is what we need as a solution to the problems in Africa. Peace and security challenges are largely the manifestation of governance challenges such as how we manage our elections. When it comes to issues relating to terrorism, diversity management, socio-economic development and other related matters, they are all about governance.
In Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo has been able to put in place projects like One-Village, One-Dam; One-District, One-Factory and others like Planting/Rearing for Food and Jobs. All these will take some time – not too long though – before results can be seen and/or experienced. What is important now is that Ghana is on the right path of economic recovery.
ECONOMICALLY UNPALATABLE SITUATION
President Nana Akufo-Addo came into office when things were economically unpalatable, or that the country was in a situation that was, and still is, very difficult so we cannot overcome every problem immediately.
The free SHS, for example, has helped enrollment at the second cycle level to increase from 52 per cent to 85 per cent. This is quite remarkable and will have a positive impact on the socio-economic development of the country soon.
Again, the increase in the supply of maize and other foodstuffs as a result of the planting for food and job programme, among others, are meant to put the economy in shape and lessen the burden of Ghanaians soon. What we need to do now is to be patient and positively participate in the national development programme to bring about the expected result in line with our national development agenda.
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
The path to national economic recovery is not an easy one so we expect every person to support the government to ensure that at the end of the day all of us become beneficiaries of all the programmes that have been put in place for our common good. Standing aloof and unreasonably criticising every good thing planned for the country will not help us in any way.
It is in the light of all this that not long ago Ghana’s President was named as Africa’s best President by virtue of a poll conducted by a Canadian-based research organisation known as “Leaders of Tomorrow”. Additionally, Forbes Africa magazine, only a week ago, named President Akufo-Addo as its African of the Year. In view of the positive leadership style and progress being made in Ghana, some citizens on the continent have openly expressed the wish that their preference would have been to have Nana Akufo-Addo as President of their country.
POSITIVE POLICIES
It is the belief of the Canadian research team that since President Akufo-Addo won the 2016 election in Ghana, he has been the man of the people with high approval rating for his positive policies such as the Free Senior High School Education, Planting for Food & Jobs, One-District-One-Dam, National Builders Corps (NABCO) and other initiatives to generate employment, among others.
It has also been pointed out by the research team that the Ghanaian President is highly committed to the development of the country, stands strongly against corruption and has great respect for good governance and the rule of law. This, they say, has placed President Akufo-Addo first on the list in Africa and third in the world of the best presidents with vision.
Forbes, in a statement, said “Ghana’s President has repositioned the country in the global marketplace as one reliant on its own resources and strengths.” Extolling the virtues of President Akufo-Addo, which led to Forbes awarding him the prestigious African of the Year crown, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, said: “We are proud of this recognition, Your Excellency, because it speaks of your commitment, it speaks of your creativity, your innovation, and your clear strategic vision of what should happen in your own country, as well as on our beloved African continent.”
Ghanaians in particular and Africans in general ought to be proud of this great achievement because it goes to show that after all, with the needed commitment, zealousness and/alacrity, the African is capable of managing his or her own affairs as it was pointed out by Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
Africa must progress to a higher level, but can the continent ever make it to the top? Yes, it can. And this is where good governance must become a priority. The rest of the continent must emulate Ghana to overcome seeming economic challenges.
Consistently promoting good governance in Africa – rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus oriented, equity and inclusiveness, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability, participation – is what the continent needs now to get there!
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BY DR. KOFI AMPONSAH-BEDIAKO
All over the world, it has been recognised that nations who have developed, paid attention to education and continue to do so. If we pay lip service to the development of our educational system, we might as well forget about our development in the foreseeable future.
In order for effective teaching and learning to happen, the teacher who is the centre of it all, must be well motivated. Every person working in an office, every parliamentarian, every minister or deputy minister, all the way up to the first gentleman of the land, owes his or her status to a teacher.
Unfortunately, for some strange reason, our leaders who are the decision makers, do not seem to care very much about the welfare of teachers. The leadership of the various teacher unions, also appear not to be doing their job as is expected of them, leaving the teacher who had worked for over a year without being paid, frustrated.
The lack of seriousness that is attached to teachers’ issues is very worrying. My parents were teachers so I am very passionate about teachers’ issues. Gone are the days that we used to say that teachers will get their reward in Heaven.
Now those in the teaching profession are mostly youthful and they have a different mindset from that of our parents. They do not want their reward in Heaven, they want it here on this very earth.
A teacher sees his colleague who he was academically better than in school, from the same background socially, becomes a Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), an Member of Parliament (MP) or a Government Appointee and overnight, this guy becomes wealthy and you say he the teacher, should wait for his reward in Heaven?
His going there is not guaranteed anyway, so if he or she does not make it to Heaven, then what? Promises of government after government to teachers, remain unfulfilled and so they become disillusioned and demotivated to ensure effective teaching and learning.
I read a story of a lady, who as a child was suffering from Dyslexia but her teacher gave her the needed attention to help her and this even led her teacher to run into problems with the school authorities, resulting in the loss of her job. This lady grew up and became a famous actress and won an Oscar.
She then gave the prize money attached to the award, which was three million dollars, to her teacher who put her career on the line to help her out of her dyslexia challenge as a child.
There are many such teachers in our educational system because teaching is a calling, like medicine, like nursing etc. and therefore teachers who are the first point of call before we can climb the ladder to become the engineers, the lawyers, accountants and the rest, deserve special attention.
What is even important is the crucial role they play in shaping the moral character of future leaders which is invaluable.
Let us all, especially our leaders, place a high premium on the teacher who is at the centre of our educational system and who can make or unmake our future as a nation. How do you ask a teacher to go to a place, far removed from his or her parents and for a year and above not pay any salary to him or her?
How is the teacher to survive? If the same thing was done to any of our leaders, especially the leaders of the various teacher unions, will they be happy? How do they expect the teachers to survive and also be motivated to deliver quality teaching? Funds must be found to immediately resolve their unpaid salaries do they can be in the right frame of mind to do their very precious job. The teaching profession, in my view, is number one, when ranking professions because as an advert displays “If you can read this, thank a teacher”. Let us give our teachers their due. God bless.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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GREETINGS from Korkorti and from Kofi Owuo, alias Death-By-Poverty. When this column took a short break, the two friends summoned me. They wanted to know whether the column had gone on pension or was just on strike. I explained that the column was not on retirement and neither was it on a hunger strike. Rather, the column was of the habit of falling into coma for four weeks or thereabout every year.
Kwame Korkorti and Kofi Owuo (who is addicted to poverty and has sworn not to prosper) are two of my former classmates I cherish so much. And it was great fun to be a Nino in those days. In fact, on the first day on campus, Korkorti was bold enough to bully his own mates who tragically mistook him for a senior.
In fact, when the first-years arrived, Korkorti was one of them but quickly pretended he was in Form 2. So he began pulling the noses of his mates and brushing their faces when the real seniors were not quite in sight. It was when classes began that his victims realised the so-called nose-pulling senior was in fact their own classmate.
So Korkorti got famous for that gimmick. But his English was poor.
The English master was a tall, bombastic young man who claimed he was a former soccer star. In fact, he swore he had a magical left foot that was comparable to that of the legendary Pele. And his grandiloquence par excellence clearly distinguished him from other members of staff.
He did not quite like Korkorti because although the boy was stubborn and his head did not have a nice shape, the girls adored him. Moreover he never did his English Language assignments.
Stand up, you tall fool, the English master often ordered. Korkorti wouldn’t stand up but would just smile broadly.
“I say stand up” the teacher would bark now like a dog suffering from rabies “Get up and let me measure your stupidity.”
Korkorti would stand up this time round and yawn.
Certainly, lunchtime has been long in coming and a good yawn often relieved the young student’s stomach of gastronomic stress.
Invariably, the English guru did not like it when Korkorti yawned. For one thing, the boy opened his mouth too widely. For another, he yawned a bit too audibly and that caused laughter among his mates.
Certainly, the master must have figured out that the boy’s height was proportional to his stupidity. But there were no school rules against yawning
Merari Alomele’s
• A female student walking away from some male students
or wide mouth. In fact, there was freedom of yawning and snoring and Korkorti exercised both freedoms judiciously and democratically.
“Do you know when you yawn you look like a hungry crocodile,” the master once asked him.
“Yes sir, I am aware sir,” Korkorti confirmed and yawned again. This time he nearly swallowed the whole class. There was an uproar and the whole class reverberated in good laughter.
The English master shook his head and then nodded it like an agama lizard. This Korkorti boy was a real character, a phenomenon, a one-man thousand. Meanwhile lessons had to continue.
It was in those days when school was exciting and we often gathered and talked about girls. I had often dreamt of having a girl from Holy Child School because I had heard very saintly and curious things about them, I had learnt from a guy from Saint Augustine’s College that Holy Child girls were of a special breed, in fact a hybrid between the cultured home-bred variety and those of inner holiness. They were born of the Holy Spirit. The only thing was that they didn’t suffer under Pontius Pilate.
In short, they were angels in human form, spoke in a special way, walked with a unique and danced with heavenly steps. They were taught by Holy Nuns and so were quite different from us who had no hope of making any spirito-culturo-scholastic progress.
I confessed to Korkorti that I wanted a girl from Holy Child, not for immoral purposes but to partake of their saintly ways so that when it was time for going to heaven, Kwame Alomele could also be considered.
During vacations we met girls from Mawuli, Ola, Accra Girls, St. Roses, Wesley Girls but none from Holy Child. Then one day, Kwame Korkorti whispered into my ear that a Holy Child babe was in town and that he was sure my dreams had come true.
Korkorti organised it and we positioned at a spot, knowing the girl would traverse en route to the library or the market. After a boring period of waiting, Korkorti suddenly espied the child coming. I looked at her face and saw of an angel. What! This was the kind I always wanted. God bless my soul! This was really my chance and Korkorti had prophesied it.
“Hello Sister,” Korkorti called her when about to leave us.
The girl slowed down and looked at us. My heartbeat increased in tempo. What really was I going to tell this angel? Wouldn’t she think Korkorti was Satan and me a common red-eyed demon? I gathered courage.
“What do you want?” she asked in a sweet voice. My heart melted instantly. Spotless beauty with voice that did something to me. Good gracious!
“Eh-h, my friend says he likes you,” Korkorti to her bluntly.
At that very moment I felt as if a sledge-hammer had hit my chest with the force of a dynamite. What a blunder! What a shock! I felt dizzy instantly. My bosom friend had balked the whole agenda. Before I could recover from the shock, the girl had walked away. From that day. I never met another holy child.
In January, this year, I miraculously received a letter from an 18-year old Holy Child student who said she was my fan.
It was a nicely written letter and I enjoyed reading it. I then relived the Korkorti incident and laughed aloud to myself.
So when Korkorti and Kofi Owuo summoned me, I reminded them of the day my heart melted at the sight of the angel; that angel which disappeared before my eyes and made me go back home not crying and yet not laughing.
Proofread
Searching for the Holy Child
GREETINGS from Korkorti and from Kofi Owuo, alias Death-By-Poverty. When this column took a short break, the two friends summoned me. They wanted to know whether the column had gone on pension or was just on strike.
I explained that the column was not on retirement and neither was it on a hunger strike. Rather, the column was of the habit of falling into coma for four weeks or thereabout every year.
Kwame Korkorti and Kofi Owuo (who is addicted to poverty and has sworn not to prosper) are two of my former classmates I cherish so much. And it was great fun to be a Nino in those days. In fact, on the first day on campus, Korkorti was bold enough to bully his own mates who tragically mistook him for a senior.
In fact, when the first-years arrived, Korkorti was one of them but quickly pretended he was in Form 2. So he began pulling the noses of his mates and brushing their faces when the real seniors were not quite in sight. It was when classes began that his victims realised the so-called nose-pulling senior was in fact their own classmate
So Korkorti got famous for that gimmick. But his English was poor.
The English master was a tall, bombastic young man who claimed he was a former soccer star. In fact, he swore he had a magical left foot that was comparable to that of the legendary Pele. And his grandiloquence par excellence clearly distinguished him from other members of staff.
He did not quite like Korkorti because although the boy was stubborn and his head did not have a nice shape, the girls adored him. Moreover he never did his English Language assignments.
Stand up, you tall fool, the English master often ordered. Korkorti wouldn’t stand up but would just smile broadly.
“I say stand up” the teacher would bark now like a dog suffering from rabies “Get up and let me measure your stupidity.”
Korkorti would stand up this time round and yawn.
Certainly, lunchtime has been long in coming and a good yawn often relieved the young student’s stomach of gastronomic stress.
Invariably, the English guru did not like it when Korkorti yawned. For one thing, the boy opened his mouth too widely. For another, he yawned a bit too audibly and that caused laughter among his mates.
Certainly, the master must have figured out that the boy’s height was proportional to his stupidity. But there were no school rules against yawning or wide mouth. In fact, there was freedom of yawning and snoring and Korkorti exercised both freedoms judiciously and democratically.
“Do you know when you yawn you look like a hungry crocodile,” the master once asked him.
“Yes sir, I am aware sir,” Korkorti confirmed and yawned again. This time he nearly swallowed the whole class. There was an uproar and the whole class reverberated in good laughter.
The English master shook his head and then nodded it like an agama lizard. This Korkorti boy was a real character, a phenomenon, a one-man-thousand. Meanwhile lessons had to continue.
It was in those days when school was exciting and we often gathered and talked about girls. I had often dreamt of having a girl from Holy Child School because I had heard very saintly and curious things about them,
I had learnt from a guy from Saint Augustine’s College that Holy Child girls were of a special breed, in fact a hybrid between the cultured home-bred variety and those of inner holiness. They were born of the Holy Spirit. The only thing was that they didn’t suffer under Pontius Pilate.
In short, they were angels in human form, spoke in a special way, walked with a unique and danced with heavenly steps. They were taught by Holy Nuns and so were quite different from us who had no hope of making any spirito-culturo-scholastic progress.
I confessed to Korkorti that I wanted a girl from Holy Child, not for immoral purposes but to partake of their saintly ways so that when it was time for going to heaven, Kwame Alomele could also be considered.
During vacations we met girls from Mawuli, Ola, Accra Girls, St. Roses, Wesley Girls but none from Holy Child. Then one day, Kwame Korkorti whispered into my ear that a Holy Child babe was in town and that he was sure my dreams had come true.
Korkorti organised it and we positioned at a spot, knowing the girl would traverse en route to the library or the market. After a boring period of waiting, Korkorti suddenly espied the child coming. I looked at her face and saw of an angel. What! This was the kind I always wanted. God bless my soul! This was really my chance and Korkorti had prophesied it.
“Hello Sister,” Korkorti called her when about to leave us.
The girl slowed down and looked at us. My heartbeat increased in tempo. What really was I going to tell this angel? Wouldn’t she think Korkorti was Satan and me a common red-eyed demon? I gathered courage.
“What do you want?” she asked in a sweet voice. My heart melted instantly. Spotless beauty with voice that did something to me. Good gracious!
“Eh-h, my friend says he likes you,” Korkorti to her bluntly.
At that very moment I felt as if a sledge-hammer had hit my chest with the force of a dynamite. What a blunder! What a shock! I felt dizzy instantly. My bosom friend had balked the whole agenda. Before I could recover from the shock, the girl had walked away. From that day. I never met another holy child.
In January, this year, I miraculously received a letter from an 18-year old Holy Child student who said she was my fan. It was a nicely written letter and I enjoyed reading it. I then relived the Korkorti incident and laughed aloud to myself.
So when Korkorti and Kofi Owuo summoned me, I reminded them of the day my heart melted at the sight of the angel; that angel which disappeared before my eyes and made me go back home not crying and yet not laughing.
This article was first published on Saturday, March 18, 1996
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