Leaders are elected or appointed in the hope that they will aspire to ensure the collective welfare of the citizenry as best they can. They are expected to guarantee the safety and security of the citizens and provide an enabling environment for the people to create jobs, exploit their unlimited potentials to the benefit of themselves, their nation, and the global world.

However, in Ghana, the ancestral place of birth of the writer, both our public leaders, from the president of the country through members of parliament to the judges and our traditional leaders are not dealing fairly with the citizens.

The politicians are playing divide and rule politics. They favour their kith and kin at the expense of the larger population. As if this is not enough, some of these politicians intentionally cause animosity in the country by employing some people and media houses to insult and attack their opponents. This is vividly exemplified by the NDC, for example, through the actions of Kevin Ekow Taylor and the unflinching support given him by the NDC fraternity.

Illegal Mining: Ghana requires billions to reclaim, restore degraded lands - EPA

This is not the very concern triggering the writing of this publication but the greed, selfishness, lack of foresight and propensity to behave as though they are not humans. Almost all the Executive members of any government in Ghana, both past and present, have or had sought wealth through illegal means, amassing immense wealth to the detriment of the entire Ghanaian masses.

What good are the politicians doing us if they tacitly encourage the destruction of the nation’s water bodies, fertile and arable lands, and virgin forest, through ramifying illegal small scale and alluvial mining, knowing such elements are life?

If President Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Convention People's Party (CPP) and Prime Minister Dr K. A. Busia of Progress Party (PP) had behaved that much irresponsibly during their time in government, would there be any more rivers, virgin forests, fertile and arable lands to survive the nation until today for these current leaders to come and enjoy and destroy as they are doing now? No!!!

Massive acquisition of money, especially when it is through illegal means, is not the peak of joy in life. Therefore, Ghanaian politicians must be seen to behave responsibly as human beings with the love of their country and people at heart. They must be seen to be of service to their people and country but not to lord themselves over the people as they are completely notoriously doing now.

Why can’t they emulate their civilized contemporary white people who believe in good names rather than riches?

Coming on to our traditional leaders, they are as bad as the politicians, if not worse. Almost all the paramount chiefs and whatever they call themselves, think they were not only born with a silver spoon in their mouth but came into this world with expansive land attached to their umbilical cord.

They see all stool lands and family lands in their demarcated areas of jurisdiction as their personal property that they can dispose of as and when they like.

The stool lands that are meant to be looked after by them as custodians for the collective benefit of the subjects have become their personal property to sell and pocket the money for themselves and their family. They have almost sold any possible available stool land.

If their forefathers and predecessors had done as they are myopically, selfishly and greedily doing, would they have come to meet any land to sell in the most deplorable manner as they are doing today?

They shamelessly sell the same piece of land again to different buyers, creating unnecessary litigation among buyers.

Are even some of these traditional chiefs not neck deep into the destructive galamsey activities ongoing in Ghana?

Most discerning Ghanaians have lost trust and faith in the current crop of Ghanaian politicians and traditional leaders owing to their deplorable attitudes that call for a change for the better.

We have the duty to save Ghana for ourselves and the future generations!

Meanwhile, watch as Acting Defence Minister Ato Forson inaugurates 9-Member Ministerial Advisory Board