As Elections Draw Near
It is election time and the political demagogues are here once again. This time the politicians come with renewed promises, vigour and energy. Before I begin this article I had two questions in mind .Firstly, as a student of political Science what is my role in this year’s elections Secondly, what should we be looking out for in our would-be political leaders in this electioneering year?
Indeed, political leadership is very important to the development and the nation building of any state. It was not for nothing that when President Barack Obama of the United States visited Ghana in 2009 he asked Africans to build strong institutions rather than strong men. Implied in Obama?s admonition is the ability of the state to have-in the words of Gabriel Almond- regulative capabilities, distributive capabilities, responsive capabilities, extractive capabilities and extensive capabilities.
In the light of this, one can say that the trouble with Ghana is the failure of leadership as eminent Nigerian author wrote in his.The Problem with Nige. (1980) that the problem with Nigeria is leadership. People may argue that Kwame Nkrumah is the best President Ghana has ever had but he had his own troubles uniting the people using the state power. As T. Peter Omari in his .The Anatomy of An African Dictator noted Kwame Nkrumah?s aspiration to unite Africa inspired many, but he overreached himself and in February 1966 was removed from power with remarkable ease.
Be as it may, we shall in the subsequently enumerate the qualities that a leader should exhibit to merit victory in Ghana’s impending presidential and parliamentary elections. Leadership should be understood in two distinct but related ways. Firstly, we should look at the personal qualities of competence, integrity, perseverance, commitment and honesty of individual leaders at the top. Secondly, common vision, common focus, and above all, the collective traits of the desire for development of the people and the willingness to serve the masses.
As incubations for good leadership in the country, the standard of leadership on our campuses and associations has left much to be desired. We should not elect leaders who are more interested
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://allafrica.com/stories/201205150627.html
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Posted by RobertButler
on May 15 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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