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Opinions of Saturday, 8 July 2017

Columnist: Raphael Derbie

Leadership crisis is responsible for Ghana's present predicaments

Ghana has a lot of natural resources which can be explored in various ways Ghana has a lot of natural resources which can be explored in various ways

Ghana, formally known as Gold Coast, a name conferred on her by her colonial masters because of her overwhelming richness in the most precious natural resources such as gold, inter alia.

This is a country that gained all kind of accolades from international communities and is well cherished and highly respected by every nook and cranny. This is because Ghana had very great leaders whose discernment and intellectual excellence couldn't be downplayed. She is a country that is second to Israel per my grading criteria in terms of God's blessings.

I am sometimes tempted to think that the blessings of Ghana is as an outgrowth Ghanaians overly seriousness with God's word. This is manifested in the activities of Ghanaians as our daily activities are largely characterized by religious connotations such as prayers etc.

The first line of the first stanza of the National Anthem of Ghana "God bless our homeland Ghana" is enough a justification that Ghana is largely polarized by the word of God. The last line of the pledge "So help me God" also buttressed my claim on the deeply ingrain religiousity in Ghanaians.

The above points are the issues that propels me into thinking that Ghana is monumentally blessed with all the resources she has because Ghanaians holistically embrace God. It is abundantly clear that Ghana has everything a nation needs to speedily develop.

The human resource needed to wisely use these natural resources is not also lacking in the country. Ghana has multitude of levelheaded human resource whose intellectual excellence is not only known to Ghanaians but also to the Western world.

I however become terrifically flabbergasted with the current state of Gold Coast as she was formally called. Why do I say so? I said so because Ghana is a country flowing with honey and milk yet our leaders move around with cups in hand begging from countries that have non of the natural resources Ghana has. So the question is, what is the problem with Ghana? God has given us everything yet we are poor.

This means that we we don't think. Is it money that we don't have, what about the gold, cocoa, timber, bauxite, diamond etc? Ghana has all these things yet we go about borrowing! Do our leaders think at all? Why can't they make use of the God given intelligence they have? Or do we give the mandate to the wrong people to lead us?

Could it also mean that we choose self centered, greedy and parochially interested persons to lead us? This is what I call leadership crisis.

Suffice it to state that our leaders are largely not always oblivious of our predicaments but they rather nurture them so that they can continuously make their wealth out of these challenges while the ordinary people perpetually suffer the repercussions. When will Ghana ever have selfless, committed and dedicated leaders?

Ghana undoubtedly though arguable, is a cornucopia of leadership with feeble thinking capabilities. Leaders in Ghana today are either feeble thinkers or parochially motivated. This is a verifiable fact which manifest itself not only at the national level but right from our homes, communities, schools, Churches, Mosques etc. I know you are wondering why I say so but let me urge you to patiently follow as I chronologically lace the words together to give you a conspicuous picture of what am talking about.

In our various homes we see how poor leadership endanger our lives. Yes, we sit down tongue-tied and allow people who are deficient in thinking to mislead us thereby jeopardizing our precious lives. We also see how sold out our chiefs and elders are as they sell out their conscience and the entire community to aliens for their personal gains.

Pragmatically speaking, I know some of you readers will affirm the kind of torture you are undergoing in the hands of Fulanis in your communities. Hmmm this is happening because you have a leader who think weakly or he is a self centered, stomach seeking persons as your leaders.

It is indeed unthinkable some times, the way people you so much trust and believe in behaves when they get power but such is life, you can not read human mind. I believe you are not unaware of the secret deals that usually happen between school management and students' leaders? I mean the very people you and voted into power to champion the crusade of students' interest. They go to bed with some of the school authorities to dupe you and me in order to enrich themselves. A classical archetype of leadership crisis. In fact, the religious leaders in our churches and mosques are not exempted.

It is therefore intelligible to state that the leadership deficiency that engulfed Ghana is the reason behind our inability to battle the seemingly invincible predicaments hence the current state of Ghana, the country with the most precious natural resources.

It is indeed lamentable to say this but that is the truth, leadership failure has been the very foundation for so many failures in Ghana. Lack of visionary and foresight leaders will forever put Ghana in the center of international ridicule as we experienced not quite long.

Our forefathers have sacrificed their lives to raise the flag of high and present leaders must recall that and discard their unyielding desire to accomplish their personal gains cum self aggrandizement to the benefit of the ordinary Ghanaians.

In conclusion ladies and gentlemen, let me emphatically state that Ghana is indeed in need of visionary, resilient, proactive and critically thinking leaders to marshal all forces together to propel the forward movement we so much cherished and anticipated for some years now.

This can only come to pass if you and I genuinely and in all sincerity give our mandate to brilliant and selfless persons to lead us in our various schools, churches, mosques etc. It is indeed an undeniable fact that you and

I have a sacrosanct responsibility to unearth the odds that engulfed our leaders and the country at large to bring sanity to the system so that mother Ghana can be given a facelift.

Enough is enough. I shall be back...