Re- Mahama is not fit for President

John Mahama’s Dynamism, a modern approach to leadership

What does it take to be a leader in the 21st century? The answer to this starts with an examination of what is required to be a leader, and these include traits, characteristics, organisational ability, human relationship skills, charisma and perhaps a unique sense of direction towards the attainment of the goals and aspirations of your people.

There is an era in the development of every community where a strong and powerful leader is required to drive away the fears of the opposition that works towards thwarting the aspirations of any nation. Colonization, wars and violence generally require an opposition that utilizes strong tactics to eliminate these threats.

In the nation building process of Ghana, a strong leader who could dare and demand from the colonial masters characteristics such as equality and the right to independence was the appeal of the time. This was not unique to Ghana because leaders such as Nelson Mandela emulated the traits of Ghana’s great Nkrumah and it made him an admirable leader to the African continent and beyond.

No wonder it was very difficult for the Israelites, as narrated in the Bible, to conceptualise a battle led by David a young shepherd who per the narration was only a boy. Later in the same cannon of the bible the disciples also found it very difficult to understand the battle of a saviour, Jesus, whose weapons were not human strength but that of words, powerful words, according to the account, that would transform by the renewing of minds.

There is also the inconceivable concept of the twentieth century family led by a woman, to the extent that our forefathers proffered this adage to wit, “when a woman buys a gun it is mostly found within the comfortable domain of a man’s house”. In fact in most parts of the world a woman had no right to own property because perhaps she required the physical strength of a man to attain that status or even to achieve that feat.

All this points to the fact that the concept of leadership has undergone metamorphosis and in most cases this change has been in response to the demands of the time. Most of our problems as a nation are not of external forces but our own challenges and inability to rise above our limitations.

Ghana does not currently face the threat of colonialism or the external aggression of war but the challenge of providing conditions that foster the attainment of our economic and social goals and aspirations. How to provide accommodation, food, clothing, jobs, healthcare and freedom to pursue happiness without encroaching on another persons’ space, is the challenge of today.

It is the effort to fight these internal challenges that warranted the institution of most revolutions across the globe. In the case of France, it was the perceived insensitivity of the monarch towards the plight of his people that led to the revolt that ousted the monarchy from the throne.

Ghana’s June 4th revolution was an attempt to fight the internal challenge of corruption. The kind of leadership needed was one that was fearless and ready to mete out justice to all manner of persons to ensure that that canker was rooted out of the society. It is therefore no wonder the path that President Jerry John Rawlings adopted in achieving this aim.

Perhaps now with the advantage of hindsight we seem to rather see only the excesses but fail to acknowledge the need for that kind of leadership.

The problem now facing Ghana, although there still remain some levels of corruption, is a developmental challenge. The challenge manifests in the need for technical know-how to move this country from a lower-middle income status to middle income status and further up to higher income status. It also requires the building of character.

Ghana is no more in need of a strong highly opinionated leader but one who is ready to follow inasmuch as lead. This is well elaborated by the fact that the expertise required to transform this country cannot emanate from the mind of one individual no matter how intelligent he may be. It therefore requires a higher sense of humility to work with others and to admit that it is a privilege and not a right to rule.

President John Dramani Mahama has therefore chosen the path of humility and all inclusiveness and in most other instances restraint as opposed to repression of opposition elements. His party members and other friends are sometimes disappointed because they seem not to realise that the requirement of leadership today is not that of yesterday.

A report widely published on various Ghanaian news websites and in some newspapers and sourced from Radio XYZ, which is calling for a return to the leadership form of yesterday, is very worrying.

Sekou Nkrumah in an interview on the 9th of July 2013 said President Mahama is “not fit to be president”. His argument that President Mahama needed to have “fire in [his] your belly” to be president was really an unrestrained demonstration of ignorance.

His “fire in your belly” concept expressed the ‘powerful’ leadership style, a style very archaic and outmoded in today’s context. Truth be told, should President Nkrumah or President Rawlings be in power around this time, they would be confronted with challenges that require them to change their leadership style in order to lead. Leadership is not about taking the lead; it also has the element of having and maintaining a following.

The current demands of that leadership is humility, decisiveness and using the power of the intellectual prowess of the whole to achieve the goals and objectives of this nation.

President Mahama is therefore leading by the example for all to follow and it is an example that will transform this nation by renewing the minds of Ghanaians towards working for our nation to achieve its proper place in this world.

That is why it is no more work for me but “Working For You”.


By John K. Nutsuakor
Email: john.nutsuakor@gmail.com
Accra- Ghana