Politicians have lost respect — Prof. Adei
A former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Prof. Stephen Adei, has stated that politicians in the country have lost respect in the eyes of Ghanaians due to their involvement in corrupt practices in their day-to-day activities.
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He said to help reverse the trend, there was the need for politicians to work towards clearing the bad perception created in the minds of the populace by weaning themselves off any form of corruption and any other events that would dent their image.
“In the past, politicians in the country were noble people who worked very hard without indulging in any form of corruption, but now it has become a common practice for politicians to be involved in one form of corruption or the other,” he added.
Prof. Adei made that statement when he spoke at the opening of a two-day global leadership summit in Kumasi.
The programme, which had the theme: “Building the Ghana we want to see,” was organised by International Christian Ministries (a coalition of Christian churches in the Ashanti Region), in collaboration with Willow Creek Association from the US.
The summit is an annual event that brings together church administrators, pastors and members of the public, as well as other stakeholders.
“Political leaders in the country can no longer be trusted because they often indulge in social immorality which keeps growing throughout the nation. There is, therefore, the need for the nation’s principles and moral values to be revisited to inculcate the habit of patriotism to streamline people’s moral conscience.”
The former rector lamented the lack of policies to guide the existence of industries in the country, leading to the collapse of most industries.
“Until the bad attitude of the people is changed, not even 50 per cent of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) would be achieved,” Prof.
Adei said, adding that there is the need for a new orientation in the line of doing things and the way people look at issues in general.
He appealed to Christians in the country to lead the crusade for good leadership by being good examples wherever they found themselves in their lines of duty and in social life.
Rev. Bill Hybels, the Founder and Leader of Willows Creek Association in the United States of America, said the leaders of today needed to be very courageous in taking bold and prudent decisions that would improve the lives of their followers.
He added that there was the need for world leaders and leadership of institutions to have the marginalised in society in mind, who should be assisted to lead a comfortable life.
Rev. Bill urged people in leadership positions to strive to sacrifice for the people they served.
The Country Director of International Christian Ministries, Rev. Philip Kofi Tutu, in a welcome address, said there was the need for the media to sit up and ensure that they were able to face realities in the country by telling the people what was actually happening without politicising issues.
He urged the various stakeholders in the country’s development to be bold and contribute their quota towards the holistic development of every facet of the economy.
