Kwabena Agyepong's lecture on leadership in Africa

AGYEPONG'S LECTURE ON LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICA

At a recent forum at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington D.C., Mr. Kwabena Adjei Agyepong, the former Press Secretary to the President of Ghana, J.A Kuffour delivered a strong Public Policy speech on Leadership and Public Accountability in Africa to the Washington and Africa based; Think Tank Group – Let's Go Africa Foundation.

It was attended by many dignitaries and the Diasporas across the Socio-Political spectrum in the Washington Metropolitan area.

The chairperson of the event was the CEO and founder of the Let's Go Africa Foundation, – Mr. Kwasi Bosompem – A Senior Urban Planner and an Author in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Here is the full text of the Policy statement.

LEADERSHIP AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN AFRICA

Mr. Chairman, distinguished invited guests, I wish to express my deepest sense of gratitude to the Let's Go Africa Foundation for inviting me to this evening's function. Today is August 4th, which is a significant date because back in Ghana, Some 32 years ago, we underwent what then became known as Ghana goes right, in local parlance nifa-nifa. Those of you who are Ghanaians here and can recollect that event, it was the day the Ghanaians changed from driving on the left which was bequeathed to us by our colonial masters and started driving on the right. It was a very difficult exercise especially in the beginning but it brought us in conformity with the rest of the world

It's coincidental for the Let's Go Africa Foundation to pick August 4th as the date for this forum to underline the theme that its time that leadership and accountability goes in the right direction. It was the famous Chinese philosopher, Mencious, who said and I quote, "To a State, the people are the most important thing," And I totally agree with him because I personally believe that the very essence of political governance is the welfare of the individual with the attendant progress that society attains as a result. The concept of leadership and public accountability is fraught with controversy. I'll not attempt to define leadership suffice it to say that leadership ought to act as a catalyst for people to realize their dreams, and to actualize their potentials and release their energies.

Distinguished Guests, we cannot conduct a fair assessment of leadership in Africa, without considering the impact of Africa's history. Africa must truly be seen as a continent in transition and rightfully so. Centuries of slave trade, colonization and the independence struggle, in the heat of a divided world contributed in no small way to throwing up a generation of leaders in the post independent era whose style of leadership stifled our human exertions. Because of the significant support that most of the African independence movement received from the Eastern Block, there was a general slant/tilt towards state controlled totalitarian style of leadership. These young nations with mostly illiterate populations were largely denied transparency and accountability from those who governed.

It was not long before the pent up frustrations and the bottled up emotions of a suppressed population manifested itself through the specter of military interventions across the continent. In my own country Ghana, these regimes came in different forms with names like – The National Liberation Council, National Redemption Council, Supreme Military Council, Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and the Provisional National Defense Council. These Military regimes or dictators were far from living up to their names as liberators, redeemers, revolutionaries, and defenders of society, They quickly became victims of themselves consumed by the excessive power they wielded and of course with this style of leadership, public accountability was thrown out of the window.

However, good fortune was to smile on Africa with the end of the cold war and the demise of communism which brought with it a growing momentum of liberal democracy.

I must emphasize here that I am an eternal optimist about Africa and Her future and far from repeating what I term the grim statistics about Africa, I'll highlight the positives of Africa at any opportunity.

Mr. Chairman, after years of pain and unremitting struggle, Africa entered this new century with renewed clarity regarding where She is headed. The consequence of this is the predominance of the ballot over the bullet. In other terms – the counting of heads not the cutting of heads has become the norm. In my own country Ghana we are headed on our way to elections for the fifth consecutive time.

Several other countries on the continent are walking the democracy path. In this regard,

I must stress that Africa has done much better than some countries in Europe, Latin America and even Asia. In spite of all this, Africa still faces enormous socio economic challenges. This is where a strong leadership and accountable leadership are needed now more than ever. At this juncture I want to add a caveat before proceeding. Current discourse on governance in Africa has tended to construe accountability in irritatingly political terms. This has spawned a whole deluge/raft of international non governmental institutions and bodies which have led a charge those African governments are corrupt.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not holding brief for African Governments. I just believe that this has deeply constrained the dealing of African Governments at bilateral and multilateral levels of international relations and with it the ability of African nations to attract much needed international capital to propel socio economic development on the continent.

One only needs to read Jeffery Sachs's book published last year titled "The End of Poverty." In this book Professor Sachs postulates and convincingly so that Africa has been unfairly tarred with a brush of government level corruption and how this undermines the continent search for foreign direct investments. According to the eminent Professor, Asian nations which are far more corrupt still attract billions of dollars in foreign direct investments.

In Africa, I believe that leadership and accountability must be conceptualized in different terms. Leadership and accountability must be seen in catholic terms encompassing the central pillars of society such as government, academia, business, the media. Leadership and accountability ought to imply overcoming the challenges of poverty, conflict, gender, the environment, across the whole spectrum of society as enumerated above to maximize the welfare of all.

Here the role of organizations such as yours Lets Go Africa) becomes crucial. Your organization as I understand by its mission statement is constantly engaging on the pressing challenges facing Africa. By providing platforms such as tonight where your counterparts such as myself in Africa will have the opportunity to discourse with our colleagues in the Diaspora. This can only help to deepen our mutual understanding of the values and principles by which we can fashion out a system that will in the final analysis, better the lot of Africa.

Way Forward:

In the long run, Leadership and Accountability must answer whether the welfare of Africa has been well and truly served. We have to work hard to restore Africans to the commanding heights of our economies. We should not get lost in verbiage.

One thing is for sure, the speed and manner in which the world is moving implies that we in Africa have no time. Our success depends on our ability to influence the actions of others.

We need a passionate, fast-paced, get-it-done mentality so we can shine as a great continent. A new Africa should pull itself by her own boot straps. Together we can make it all happen to build a more secure future for our children's children.

Distinguished guest, you must forgive me if I sound too optimistic about the future of Africa. I did mention earlier that I will only highlight the positives, if for nothing at all to counter the negative stereotyping you are fed with daily by the western media organizations who tend to profit from reporting on human catastrophe.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for listening. Please feel free to ask questions.