The Chief Executive Officer of Centre for Transformational Leadership in Africa (CTL Africa), a civil society group, Samuel Ayim, has said the resigned deputy minister for Food and Agriculture William Quaitoo showed leadership by his decision to resign from government following his ethnocentric comment.
According to the CTL boss, the ex-deputy minister exhibited courage and maturity by publicly apologising over the gaffe and going ahead to step aside.
Speaking to journalists in Accra Wednesday, Mr Ayim said there is the need for Ghanaians to change their orientation about leadership in the country.
“Leadership is a position of responsibility and so if you entrusted with a leadership position and you do not live up to it, the appropriate thing is to step aside.
“And so I think that what he did is positive and it must be encouraged. When people do the wrong things and they don’t get punished, it emboldens others,” he said.
He added that leadership is so essential to society and must be inculcated in the academic curricula of schools across Ghana.
“In every discussion on the development (or rather the under development) of Africa, the issue of leadership is fingered. It has almost become a cliché to cite countries Malaysia, Singapore and even Rwanda as examples of where leadership has made a difference as against African countries who are still struggling under poor leadership, with its attendant avoidable economic and social tragedies.
“So if leadership is recognised as the problem, for so long, why are we not able to fix it with all the intellectual and financial resources at our disposal, the answer is that the problem is deeper than merely fingering leadership, the problem lies on the very definition we put on leadership. The concept of leadership as a position, a higher position from where all solutions should emanate and that we should all strive to attain that position before we can make any meaningful contribution is a flawed one,” he noted.
In order to improve leadership in Ghana, Mr Ayim said CTL Africa is partnering leadership expert John Maxwell to organise a leadership program dubbed Live2lead which will be held at the Physician and Surgeons centre in Accra on October 6, 2017.
