Poor quality of state institutions favour politicians and other elites - Prof. Akpalu

Professor Wisdom Akpalu, Dean of the School of Research and Graduate Studies, GIMPA, has stated that one way to build a progressive national character having strong national institutions that do not have any place for political, tribal and elitist considerations.

The professor said such institutions are virtually non-existent in the country because the powers that be have ignored improving them.

According to the Dean of Graduate Studies, the poor quality of the institutions favours the political elites and powerful people in society as it makes it possible for them to literally get away with wrongdoings and thus strengthen their resolve to ignore any motivation to improve the quality of such institutions because strong institutions would haunt them.

Professor Akpalu said at the Second Edition of the Annual Emotional Intelligence Africa Summit 2019 held at GIMPA [Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration] on Thursday, November 14.

He was speaking on the theme: ‘Building National Character of the New Ghanaian: the Role of Emotional Intelligence’.

Professor Akpalu, who doubles as the President of Africa Association of

Environmental and Resource Economists, bemoaned the current situation in Ghana where the people get sharply divided on political, tribal and ethnic lines in matters of corruption and other things that undermine national growth.

He explained that political, tribal and ethnic considerations are now openly applied in job acquisition, educational opportunities, choosing marriage partners, dispensing of justice, and voting for representatives of political parties, among others, and warned that “until we get to a point where we look beyond politics, tribes and ethnic groups in all critical decisions that we make in this country, we cannot break the chain of poverty and inequality, social vices, and corruption among the elites, including religious leaders.”

Prof. Akpalu further observed that “we have never had any impressive national character, and we cannot have any such thing in our lifetime until a leader emerges who is willing to sacrifice a significant portion of the unfettered powers accorded him by our constitution. In short, we need a selfless leadership.”

Professor Akpalu questioned the speakers and participants, including traditional leaders, civil servants and students, as to whether the future of the country is brighter.

He said “somehow we are in the state of cognitive dissonance. We know the right things, we complain about them, but we fail to be part of the solution and most of us have lost our sense of sympathy and are less motivated to take a good stock of our actions.

“We need emotional intelligence now than ever before.”

Significance of Emotional Intelligence

The Nation’s first internationally qualified emotional intelligence coach and the summit host, Mr. James Kwesi

Addison, underscored the need for a national character to serve as a wheel and strength “so that Ghana does not waver for this will foster and strengthen our national identity”.

“It is imperative we build the next generation to be people with an impressive national character and we cannot be successful in this if we leave out the development of emotional intelligence capabilities,’’ he added.

Mr Addison gave the assurance that Addison International Center for Emotional Intelligence, his outfit, would continue to offer its best in making sure that Ghanaians in particular and Africans in general become capable of overcoming the challenges the continent faced, using emotional intelligence.

The Emotional Intelligence Africa Summit is an annual Pan-Africa event dedicated to building emotional capital under the auspices of the Addison International Center for Emotional Intelligence, otherwise known simply as Addison International.