The legacies of President Mahama

In both business and politics, leadership is very critical but what makes a real leader? And how can we recognise one? There are several characteristics of a great leader but I would like to concentrate on the three major ones: moral courage, humility, and leaving behind a lasting legacy.

As Ghanaians, I believe most of us would be interested to know the kind of leaders we have. I am, therefore, going to put H.E. John Dramani Mahama on a scale for us to determine what class he belongs to. I will do the analysis dispassionately for all of us to conclude.

Moral courage: This matters most, but unfortunately, it is always in short supply; it is the ability to stick to one's vision or beliefs to pursue a course of action in the face of overwhelming criticism, great adversity, and not least, sometimes the faintheartedness of friends, allies, and supporters.

I have a faint memory of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah when he was overthrown in 1966, and saw a little bit of Dr. Busia as president; I can say with all certainty that the most demonised, most vilified, most pilloried, and perhaps the most ill-treated head of state in the history of Ghana is President John Dramani Mahama.

He is the only president who has frequently been called names by some shameless, uncouth, amoral, rapacious, diabolical, mischievous, and wicked opposition elements whose only incontinent desire is to win power at all costs at the expense of the nation's progress; he was the only president whose presidency was needlessly challenged at the Supreme Court, and for eight good months, the economy of the country almost stood still.

The ripple effect of the petition case stagnated an economy that was nearly bed-ridden as a result of the implementation of the Single Spine Pay Policy which saw the annual wage bill skyrocketing from 2.7 billion Cedis to a whopping 9 billion cedis! As if this was not enough, Ghana's budgetary support from its development partners was downsized because of its new status as a lower middle-income state. Then came the killer punch - dumsor cum opposition massaged demonstrations. I bet you, these are enough to unsettle any leader worth his mettle, but President Mahama unwaveringly soldiered on.

The humility level of President Mahama is matchless. For the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces to be humble to the point of accepting responsibility for the nation's challenges during his tenure as the President of the Republic is a clear testimony of the point I am trying to make.

Above all, successful leaders must work to build something of which they could be proud or remembered, something they could leave behind as a legacy, a legacy that could put smiles on the faces of people - this is where I doff my hat for President Mahama, and I will explain why.

In the 67-year history of Ghana, managed by over 11 heads of state, we can boast of only two Teaching Hospitals: Korlebu and Komfo Anokye. Within his term in office as Vice President and President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama added two more Teaching Hospitals, Tamale and the 617-bed University of Ghana Teaching Hospital at Legon. The Tamale Teaching Hospital had 400 beds, and there was ongoing expansion work to add 400 more beds when he left office. Amazing!

Since independence, Ghana has had only one Military Hospital, namely 37. President Mahama added a 500-bed Military Hospital at Afari in Kumasi which was also near completion before he exited office. Terrific!

In the entire life of our country under about 10 leaders, Ghana had about 530 Senior High Schools which gives an average of 53 schools per head of state. President Mahama to make Ghana better, was building 200 Senior High Schools of which over 120 of these were at various levels of completion when he left office. The final target was going to be four times the average of what any other head of state has achieved in the history of our country. Fantastic!

Since independence, we have only one International Airport, Kotoka. The young man from Bole was expanding the Tamale Airport into an international one, and our Muslim friends from the North made history by flying straight from Tamale to Mecca without the usual struggle and frustrations during hajj. What a relief!

For the first time in the history of Ghana, President Mahama completed a gas plant at Atuabo to power our thermal plants and also supply 75% of LPG needed in the country, not to mention the other numerous projects across the length and breadth of the country.