Abide by national values for effective leadership - Dr Stephen Adei advises youth
The youth have been advised to abide by the nation’s values as they prepare themselves for leadership positions in the country.
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According to Prof. Emeritus Stephen Adei, values such as integrity, discipline, patriotism, good work ethic and meritocracy at all levels must be instilled in the youth to build them into capable leaders for the accelerated development of the country.
He gave the advice at an inaugural lecture at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) in Accra.
Prof. Adei attributed the negative behaviour by some public servants to the inability of their parents and teachers to instill discipline in them during their childhood, including practices such as cheating in examinations at the basic and secondary levels.
“At tertiary institutions, student leadership and membership of Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) and Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) have also become the fastest way to join the corrupt and bureaucratic classes, and we should all be concerned,” he added.
Prof. Adei also said that leaders must be compelled to exhibit good behaviour, and that people who lived above their means could be presumed corrupt unless they could justify their means.
“I hear that our laws actually make provision for that and if so we have to make that explicit,” he added.
Event
Prof. Adei was delivering a lecture on the topic: “The linchpin role of political and public sector leadership in the rise and fall of nations: Lessons for Ghana”.
The lecture was aimed at immortalising the contributions of the first Ghanaian Principal of GIMPA, Victor Mamphey, and the Second Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld to the institution and the world at large.
In attendance were academia, traditional leaders and public servants, among others, who discussed issues such as improving public leadership for the sustainable development of the country.
Prof. Adei further said that leadership involved the ability to mobilise critical mass of followers with a vision and strategies to implement a positive agenda of change, while solving problems that stood in the way of progress.
That, he said, was because of its critical and irreplaceable role in agenda setting, including the appointment of effective guiding coalition of cabinet members, advisors and key office holders and mentioned countries such as South Korea, China, Malaysia and Thailand where he said they invested in the intellectual input of their leaders.
According to Prof. Adei, the bane of the country’s development was “a double whack of poor political leadership, corruption, politicised and inefficient bureaucracies”.
Meritocracy
He also said that recruitment must be based solely on merit and promotion on meritocracy, efficiency, integrity, accountability, and transparency and neutrality, among other values, to ensure quality service delivery.
Prof. Adei further emphasised that there was the need to improve developmental leadership for the future of the country.
“But the biggest constraint in getting “good” people to become leaders is the corrupt process of choosing political leaders where corruption and money rules from the party level.’’
“We must strengthen not only the supply of good leadership but demand for it. Demand for good leadership, which by the way is a high risk business, is a must,” he added.
Commitment
The Rector of GIMPA, Prof. Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, expressed the commitment of the institute to take up the role of preparing students for various leadership roles to contribute to the growth of the country and the sub region as a whole.
“I will like to repeat the fact that GIMPA is well positioned to be a leader in this area where we try to develop the next generation of leaders to support the development of our country and the continent as a whole,” he added.
