Professor
Ransford Gyampo, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of
Ghana, has postulated that it is about time the nation got a president who is
ready to go against political influencers and investors and serve the citizenry
as expected.
“We need a president whose agenda is not to
win a second term as that is the only way he will deliver on his mandate, it is
important governments given mandates of the citizenry to govern looks at
broader interest of all of us and not surround themselves with a group of
people and support base who feel they have a sense of entitlement,” he noted.
Prof. Gyampo explained that a lot goes into selection
of flagbearer or president behind scenes and influencers who make it possible
have an upperhand when their choice wins power and maintained that “we don’t
have public funding of political parties, we have monetised our politics before
you become president it is somebody who pays all bills, campaign, giant
billboards and other issues”.
“Once you’re given mandate to govern you have many unseen interests and influencers around you, want to determine what you should do and what you shouldn’t be doing, influencers usually misguide leadership for own benefit, may mean well but because of influencers and others who contribute to making you who you are, able to deal with challenges, we’ll need a leader who doesn’t care about second term,” Prof Gyampo stressed.
Josephine Nkrumah, the Chairperson of the
National Commission for Civic Education, noted that a leader was bound to fail
if the people around him had negative approach to politics saying, “The larger
groups around you should be able to hold you, if those people fundamentally
have warped mentality as to what politics, democracy and wellbeing of the
citizenry are about, then you are bound to fail.”
She agreed to an assertion that “our leaders
should focus on making lives of the citizenry they have been elected to serve
better and not pleasing a few citizens to retain power”. -ghanaweb.com
