Prof. Alabi: Africa lacks strategic leadership

Professor Goski Alabi, Dean of School of Graduate Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Accra, on Friday said Africa lacks strategic leadership in managing its resources.

Prof Alabi disagrees with the assertion that Africa’s underdevelopment is as a result of imperialism and stressed that in terms of natural resources, Africa is the world’s largest richest continent, yet associated with diseases, poverty and low educational background.

She said this at a strategic leadership colloquium in Accra for the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Professional Studies, Accra, under the theme “Strategic Planning: A Tool for Organizational Effectiveness”.

Prof Alabi said Africa leaders lack requisite vision in utilizing its natural resources to maximize wealth and that after independence; African countries could not institute realistic goals to manage its resources.

She said the Millennium Development Goals were a clear-cut strategic goals supported by all the world’s countries.

Prof Alabi said the country, in the 1970s, introduced the agricultural initiative "Operation Feed Yourself" which was accepted as a national agricultural policy, aimed at boosting food production and sufficiency, but that vision is absent in this current dispensation.

Prof Alabi said the colloquium is the second of its kind, which is a scholar practitioner approach to teaching and learning, in ensuring that students develop strategic plans to meet the needs of society.

She said the colloquium provided opportunities for four presentations by industry experts on topics on strategic planning in the 21 century Church, improving and sustaining healthy animal in Ghana, overview of the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana and the role of traditional leaders in community development.

Prof Alabi said each presentation is followed by a presentation group of students on strategic plan for the topic for academic assessment.

She called for partnership between tertiary education and government and industry in addressing the problem of strategic leadership, adding that, institutions of higher education must focus more on practical than theory.

Prof Alabi said Universities must start looking at their teaching and learning methodologies and make them more friendly and practical to meet the needs of society for national development

She said their outfits believes that for a course to be useful, it has to be realistic to the needs of society, country and the people, who contributed to the development of the country.

Brigadier General Edward Edem Dovi Fiawoo, Justice Advocate General of the Ghana Armed Forces said strategic planning is important to any organization because it provides a sense of direction and outlines measurable goals.

He urged other tertiary institutions to institute strategic leadership as a course, since it is a useful tool for guiding the day-to-day decisions and also for evaluating progress and changing approaches when moving forward.