Integrity, discipline and courage - The hallmarks of economic development of a nation
The passing of Appropriation Bill 2017 apparently signifies the beginning of the spending spree of the national cake, that is, Budget 2017. The National Budget is the single most important policy vehicle for giving effect to a country’s economic and social priorities, within the scarce resources that are available to the government for public expenditure.
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It is through the budget process that competing policy objectives are reconciled and implemented in concrete terms for nation building.
Africa is plagued by ethnic and tribal divisions and, in some countries, unhealthy religious differences. In addition it continues to face economic development challenges in the following key areas, among others:
• Macroeconomic policy mistakes
• Low manufacturing value-addition enterprises
• Over dependence on one or two commodities for foreign exchange earnings
• High debt, both external and domestic
• Low private sector response to economic framework
• Deficient infrastructure
• Low savings and investment
Hence, to combat the above challenges, Africa needs transformational leaders who are imbued with virtues of integrity, discipline, and courage.
Courage
Integrity often requires courage. Courage is a firmness of spirit that enables a person to try things, to accept challenges, to persevere and to overcome fears that could prevent us from doing what we should do. There are two types of courage. Physical courage refers to the willingness to risk personal injury. It is commonly associated with acts of bravery and valour in order to defend or help others to advance a noble cause.
Moral courage refers to the psychological strength to resist pressures and hold on to important values even in the face of criticism, possible embarrassment and other non-physical harm, such as being unpopular, losing something a person wants (a job, an election, a relationship) or injuring your career. One aspect of moral courage is accepting defeat without losing heart, another is daring to standing up for one’s beliefs.
Courage does not mean being without fear, rashness is not a virtue. It is wise to be wary of things that can harm us, and on the other hand, it is the essence of courage, to overcome fear. In fact, without conscious risk-taking, and without the attendant fear, there is no possibility that a person could exercise true courage; it would just be recklessness or mere naïveté.
Fortitude and forbearance
Fortitude and forbearance are related to courage. These qualities help us endure discomfort and fear so we can do what needs to be done even when it is difficult or unpleasant, or even when we think we are likely to fail.
Living up to one’s principles means resisting the temptation to depart from acquired, acceptable principles just to obtain something we want, or so as to stay out of trouble. George Washington, a man of genuine integrity, observed that “few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” In a sense, all the temptations that draw us away from our best intentions are “bids” for our integrity.
Character and integrity are more often demonstrated by the way we handle day-to-day relationship questions, than by heroic acts of courage.
Toxic leaders
Today, the said virtues are confronting many leaders as a big challenge because most of our leaders on the African continent, sadly, are toxic leaders characterised by fighting and controlling, rather than by uplifting and inspiring their citizens. These toxic leaders endeavour to succeed by tearing others down. They destroy basic human sense of trust that is critical for harmonious working relationship and socio-economic development.
Africa needs economic transformation which is now the paradigm of consensus for Africa’s development. But transformation will only come if we diversify our economies by boosting our competitiveness in the world market through manufacturing enterprises. Simply said, we need to support small and medium manufacturing enterprises, which will ginger manufacturing multiplier effect in terms of employment and tax revenue generation, foreign exchange earnings and investors’ attention. Diversification will make our economies become much more prosperous, less dependent on foreign assistance, and much more resilient to shocks.
Truly, transformation requires a constructive relationship between the state and the private sector. Indeed, private firms will lead in producing and distributing goods and services, in upgrading technologies and production processes, and in expanding employment. But private firms need a state that has strong capabilities in casting an overall economic vision and strategy, efficiently providing supportive infrastructure and services, and maintaining a regulatory environment conducive to entrepreneurial activity.
That will require committed leadership to reach a consensus on each country’s long-term vision and strategy and to coordinate the activities of all actors in pursuing economic transformation. This long-term developmental approach requires a change in governance ideology by asking ourselves the question: ‘What do we desire to be as a country?’
Economy before politics and culture
In my opinion, the governance model and ideology we should adopt now for our country is simply: economy first before politics and culture. The reason is that when we are economically strong, ‘all other things shall be added unto us’ and that means strong political system and sound cultural environment. Unfortunately, the world view of Ghanaians today is compromised as it is seen through the lenses of political parties endangering our thinking and developmental agenda.
Politics is good but toxic politics with its inherent toxic leadership is dangerous, because politics is primarily about action, and not secondarily about thoughts, beliefs, opinions or reasons. Few politicians are able to transcend the divide. Truly, for the realist, in politics, power and self-interest are all that matters; everything else is mere window dressing. This mindset is killing economies of African countries through the “animal” called corruption.
Our leaders seem unable to understand or refuse to understand the three simple principles of sound public expenditure management system: fiscal discipline, allocative efficiency and cost effectiveness.
Our toxic leaders refuse to accept and understand that the necessary conditions for achieving the three main goals of sound public expenditure management system are transparency, accountability and comprehensiveness of the budget. In short, public expenditure management is required through both policy frameworks and institutional frameworks implemented with integrity, discipline and courage.
Governments all over the world are required to respond to increasingly complex demands from their citizens as well as significant changes in the global environment. In Ghana, our government continues to grapple with several difficult social and economic issues: poverty eradication, unemployment, poor education and energy crisis. To solve these problems, we need to consider, as citizens, three simple innate personal characteristics of the Ghanaian: Integrity, Discipline and Courage. These three attributes are the hallmarks of development.
Socio-economic development will come if we, as human beings, and for that matter society, function at a different higher level than we are doing now, if we are to survive and thrive in tomorrow’s world. Remember the words of Nelson Mandela which seemingly and sadly manifested itself in an ugly and shameful manner in South Africa recently. He said: “When one caste or one nation becomes too powerful, there are crises of wars, revolutions and economic collapse.”
The answer to this problem is a governance system that ensures fearlessness in society, holistic systems of education, health and well-being, justice, production, and harmony between tribes and nations. When this happens, the ideal situation would be achieved; the world would grow together as a family.
As mentioned earlier, Public Expenditure Management for economic transformation requires that we follow the universal principles of sound public finance:
• Financial discipline
• Allocative efficiency
• Cost effectiveness
Transformation is a wide-range, integrated, multi-year process that should be designed to secure lasting change. It is not ad hoc practice.
To improve public expenditure management, we need to address the core underlying issues, and improve:
• Transparency
• Accountability
• Rigour
• Strategic perspective
To achieve better services and stronger economy, the basic concepts of value for money for taxpayers and resource allocation to prioritised projects that ginger development is the answer.
