P.V. Obeng: An enduring legacy of leadership and tolerance
My first contact with Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, known with affection as PV, was at a wedding of my elder brother, Mr. E.F. Sackey, at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 6, 1975. PV was the best man.
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Mr. Sackey, a Strathclyde Scholar, who became Deputy Commissioner at CEPS, had struck eternal friendship with PV while they were students at the KNUST and were residents of the University Hall, Kantanga. And once again he was lending support and motivation as he had always done for his dearest friend.
PV had displayed the same qualities of vigilance and possibility, resulting in iconic victory for Mr. Sackey in a titanic hurdles race during an inter-hall sports competition at the KNUST against Mr. Kenneth Ampratwum, who later became Minister of State in the PNDC government.
PV was an icon
Even at that momentary meeting, one saw the greatness of the quintessential PV - the iconic statesman and accomplished politician and astute technocrat - we all had essential respect and liking for his graceful personality.
PV seemed destined for great things. He was already well established financially, a successful businessman, who had made his fortune, out of a fishing business working as an executive member at the Mankoadze Fisheries in Tema, the first Ghanaian company to successfully achieve a breakthrough in large-scale fishing and the production of fish products.
PV had quiet charm, respectability, energy and invigorating presence that was magnetic. He had a confident and gregarious personality. His intelligence, imagination, good sense of humour and his performance as the best man was felicitous. He always preserved communication with the Sackey family until his death.
He was a man of broad experience, exceptional intelligence and ability. As PNDC Co-ordinating Secretary he was the virtual Prime Minister of Ghana for almost two decades. For over four decades he had great influence on public policy and politics as a Senior Presidential Advisor, Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, and Chairman of the University Council, KNUST. PV played a catalytic role in the recent National Economic Forum held at Senchi, where he chaired many of the sessions, and indeed he was following up on some action plans when he collapsed in his car.
He brought striking gifts to his service in public affairs. He had an inquiring and incisive mind and a limitless capacity for work. One could not but marvel at the inexhaustible vitality of PV, even in his late 60s. He was one of the longest serving and most tested; and proved the most effective government functionary. He was capable of original thought.
He had the talent of speed for decision making. He was an orator of unusual force and eloquence, and he usually spoke extemporaneously. He was the vital centre of action in the whole scheme of government. He always placed himself in the very thick of things. PV often urged his associates that they had an obligation to take part in public life and instill convictions of purpose and possibility.
Admiration
I have always admired PV’s public presence and wit, valued his skills as a politician, statesman and technocrat. A visiting World Bank officer for power projects in West Africa in referring to PV said: “ He has extraordinary intelligence and ability. He is vigilant, impassive, patient, confident and an accomplished leader.”
Within government and outside of government he had excellent relations with all class of people and this was part of his attraction. He had great relish for politics. His politics embodied political tolerance, civility and unity that won friends from every spectrum of society and ultimately from the very heart of every political class. He had the gift of turning political opponents into friends.
Reflections
I have had time to reflect on what made PV such a great statesman, astute politician and exemplary technocrat. PV approached politics without illusion, but with considerable wits. He knew his mind. He was a man of endless patience and enthusiasm. He had a profound historical and political mind, and the ability for seeing current events in historical perspective. He had strong principles founded on his faithful Christian values and his commitment to liberty and the moral principles that define it.
He understood that we are all children of God and that everyone of us has a mission and purpose in life, and that the quest for pursuit for excellence, virtue, goodness, freedom, liberty and justice are worthy of commitment.
These were the standards he set his eyes on, and in attempting those tasks, he demonstrated what impact each of us could bring to bear on millions of Ghanaians held from the bondage of poverty, disease, squalor, and ignorance. He was kind, humane and merciful, and so in his distressing moments when he collapsed in his car, he found help in a good Samaritan, a kind taxi driver who conveyed him to a hospital for medical care.
Some ideals
PV disliked cracks and divisiveness in politics and was pleased to have the esteem of those who held contrary political views. He related pleasantly with every person he came across. He cared passionately about the people he served and was willing to serve the nation at the risk of his life.
Most people who are concerned with polarisation of our society would admit that our development process is becoming dysfunctional. Political discourse has become more polarised than at any point in our history. Our decadent politics, language and bad behavior compromise values and basic beliefs. Polarisation of our society is producing national deficiencies, impairing efficiency, crippling our development effort and promoting mediocrity.
The polarisation extends to the media, which reinforces divisive tendencies in our national life. Some of our national bad habits are unfortunately deeply rooted in language. Sheer incompetence and vulgarity is the most marked characteristic of our language use, especially political writing and speech.
In our current political dispensation, there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues. Our problem is a failure of leadership. Ghana has great destiny and we must take the necessary action towards political regeneration. A new spirit of patriotism, selflessness, excellence must be infused into this great country. We resign ourselves to national bad habits at great peril. Our current hyper-partisanship would need conscious action to bring about change.
History’s treatment
Our national leaders, and indeed leaders everywhere occasionally wonder how history will treat them. And so we may ask. How will history deal with P.V ? I have no doubt in my mind that Ghanaians and other men and women of thought and action will remember PV well with great affection.
PV does not enter history perfunctorily. He does so as a colossus. His political instinct was for service, not for political vendetta or self-aggrandizement. He was tough but courteous and a humane technocrat. One felt that he was without personal ambition. He was much more concerned with getting things right.
He disliked divisiveness and political intrigues. He demonstrated discursive etiquette on the importance of values such as civility, unity, and tolerance. He possessed a rare gift of leadership. never poured any scorn or cast aspersions against his political opponents.
The greatest tribute we can pay to the memory of P.V. is to end the vitriol of our politics with its infamous strategy to destroy the reputation of other people. Incivility, divisiveness, and intolerance will inhibit political progress and development. P.V. was to an exceptional degree a unifier.
Political destiny
May our political destiny be guided by the values of civility, tolerance and unity, and may we follow the example of PV. I have been truly blessed to have had a friend like PV I am grateful to God that our paths crossed and that our lives touched.
We shall always remember PV, his wife Rose and the children with deepest love and respect. And in so doing, I close with a line from Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, an American College Professor and veritable icon of the American Civil War, best known for his heroic participation in the Battle of Gettysburg, who wrote:
“In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls… generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.”
