If there were a classroom where aspiring leaders are gathered and tutored the arts of leadership, the first lesson would revolve around the imperatives of character in leadership and accountability to the electorate. The curriculum would focus on these double-barreled imperatives as conditions for consideration into positions of leadership in today’s emerging Ghana as an economic force in the West Africa sub-region. Leaders who undergo this pre-qualification screening would be effectively groomed to attain mastery in self-management. Secondly, they would lead their followers with a tested vision and value-based mission infused with a feedback mechanism for performance appraisal.
In real life, leadership expectation in our environment is still at its infancy. There is no formal school where leaders are trained. Our experience in political leadership since independence tends to lead us away from the school of thought that leaders are made to the extreme opposite that leaders are inherently bestowed us. Generally, what we have around us have been leaders we popularly presume are God-sent, divinely appointed, greed-driven, power-thirsty, gun-throttling and self-acclaimed people who have acquired intimidating credentials to impose themselves on the electorate. These breed of leaders have been ineffectual and failed woefully to lead the people into personal wealth creation and economic prosperity.
Our assumption as a people of how our leaders should emerge might have some territorial justification because of our intrinsic religious worldview. However, if we do not expose this assumption to the light of leaders-are-made paradigm built on the tenets of personal character and accountability, we will fail to actualize responsive governance from the leaders we have chosen to represent our interests as a people. When this happens, growth and development capable of propelling us as a nation from the third world to first like in the case of Singapore will be diminutive. What we will get in exchange is a minority of self-acclaimed leaders who have gone ahead in the manner to ‘rag-to-riches’ story to corruptly enrich themselves with the wealth of the nation. The people will remain pauperized. In another clime where people have attained high degree of civility, discipline and collective responsibility, this minority can only end up in the correctional homes for rascals or psychiatric hospitals for the mentally sick.
We dare say that most individuals who parade themselves as our leaders in political landscape today need help, for crying aloud. Otherwise, what is Mr. Eric Amoateng, the MP for Nkoranza North under the auspices of the New Patriotic Party doing behind bars and standing trials in far away America for criminal charges for gross misconduct? Prior to being caught in the act of smuggling heroin worth over US$6million into the United Stated of America with his accomplice, Mr. Nii Okai Adjei, he is adjudged one of the new breeds of emerging leaders with potentials to turn the wheel of generational change in the land. Mr. Amoateng could pass for a gentleman, perhaps a philanthropist. The entire cloud of civility that concealed his unscrupulous personality has evaporated. After all, Mr. Amoateng his allegedly a ‘businessman’ now facing criminal charges for drug trafficking, an action unbecoming of a leader. This is not the type of leader we desire.
Crime is not race sensitive. Latest developments in the media suggested that Mr. Amoateng operated a syndicate of organized illicit drug network. We learnt that almost twelve Ghanaians have been arrested in Toronto and Montreal. Mr. Amoateng illicit drug business spanned Afghanistan, the origin of the suspected drug substance, went through the United Arab Emirates and the UK enroute to the US. You cannot rule out the fact that the income generated from this narcotic is being channeled to fund global terrorist activities. Now, good governance too is not race sensitive because I have heard some people argue that we are better off if we return to the colonial era and are managed by the White masters. No, good governance is blind to the colour of a skin. It is, however, unfortunately that Africa is vulnerable because of ineffectual leadership and accountability in the socio-economic framework of governance.
There is a dearth of quality leaders in our political landscape. This does not mean that there are no men and women of sterling qualities in the land to put their character and competencies to test and lead us. The irony is that such leaders while doing successfully well in the business sector have avoided active participation in politics even when they know the role political stability plays in economic rejuvenation of the nation. We can correct the situation where leaders of characters stay away from politics and discredited people roam the landscape as our messiahs.
Leadership expectation in our environment is still at its infancy. The global stakeholders demand more action from us. Leadership today demands more attention from the electorate than it gets at the moment. American motivational writer, Jim Rohn said, “leadership is the greatest challenge of the 21st century in science, politics, education, and industry.†Show me a man who can orchestrate science, politics, education and industry, and I will show you a leader who is on the path of transforming his nation to greatness. When leaders fail, the basis for their selection is suspect. On the whole the people suffer and the nation bleeds. When incapable people are entrusted with leadership, social amenities such as electricity, water and education are dumped in the dustbin. Social unrest, highway robbery, corruption, and all things that make wealth creation impossible will gain major headlines of the newspapers. Now, you can appreciate how critical our leaders are to our national survival. We should begin to creatively demand good governance from our elected leaders. The demand for good governance transcends the myriads of TV shows, public debates, topical discussions and lukewarm press reportage of the misdeeds of elected officers. We have to do more. And, it takes a good and well-groomed leader to achieve this uncommon feat.
What we need to do to get leadership working is very simple. What do we need to do to select leaders with impeccable personal character? How do we determine if a leader has personal character? How do we postulate to determine if a potential leader is, will or has been accountable to people who put him in position of responsibility in life? Whichever way we look at leadership, character and accountability are the sum total of all the definition, types and styles of leadership. We have to come to terms with the two pillars that hold the concept of leadership namely personal character and accountability. Character is who a leader is, it is the body of attributes that makes a complete gentleman leader.
John Gardner in his classic work On Leadership gave a listing of these attributes to include physical vitality and stamina, intelligence and action-oriented judgment, eagerness to accept responsibility, task competence, understanding of followers and their needs, skills in dealing with people, need for achievement, capacity to motivate people, courage and resolution, trustworthiness, decisiveness, self-confidence, assertiveness, and adaptability/flexibility. Gardner is not exhaustive, but his list is a mileage in determining the prerequisite for leadership. Leaders in politics and governance cannot be expected to give less whether his style is democratic, charismatic or even autocratic leaders. A leader with impeccable personal character should be a man of integrity, empathy, humility, and service-driven. If you take a close look at self-acclaimed leaders we have around us today, even their physical vitality and stamina alone are enough to rule them out of the contest, if leadership were a race.
Let us come back to the electorate. Peter Z. Malkin a former agent of Mossad in his book Eichmann in My Hands argued that evil does not exit in isolation. I agree with him that the emergence and sustenance of evil in the society is the product of amorality by consensus. When we take money from leaders, when they use illicit money to engage in philanthropy, etc and we accept them without questioning the background, we are collaborating with evil. The electorate must realize that they have the power to push bad leaders away from governance so that the long arm of the law can catch up with them. We must go back to the basics and ensure that our leaders possess impeccable personal character and will be accountable to the electorate. The demand must be carried out dispassionately if we must collectively succeed as a people. Look at Asia today. Asia has enjoyed rapid economic development in recent decades, which has been sustained and would continue unless there is a major international conflict that halt the process. Analysts and economists have traced this phenomenal development to the type of leadership we have been discussing, both business and political life. If we must develop, there is no other magic wand to use than Asia has shown us. So when next we are faced with demand to elect a leader at all levels, what should we be doing? We should ask what these aspiring leaders possess in terms of qualification. What are they bringing to the table? What values are they adding to our lives? What are their developmental agenda? What are the expectations? How committed are they to implement their programmes? Who are they? Self made? Struggling and hungry, looking for avenue to enrich themselves through corruption? When next some persons are seeking elective posts, we should ask them what they have to offer in terms of character, social development and economic turnaround. The selection of leaders in pre-colonial intervention in Africa was based on this methodology. The electorate has a dignity that money cannot buy. Let us activate this dignity and demand character and accountability from our leaders. If we fail as electorate to demand personal character and accountability from our leaders, we will be aiding and abetting mediocrity, bad government, underdevelopment, corruption and unrealized dreams of the founders of modern Africa!
Babatunde Ayoola Fajimi, Accra Ghana
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