Ghana needs leaders with impeccable integrity and unmatched emotional intelligence

I would like to believe that politics is a competition of ideas between rival political parties with a view to receiving public mandate to form a government to put better policies and programmes in place to impact the lives of the masses.

The electorates, more often than not, put in heart-wrenching sacrifices to ensure that the political process goes on seamlessly.

Nevertheless, the citizens and denizens are often spurned and neglected after helping the manipulating politicians to their comfort zones.

That being said, the vast majority of Ghanaians, so to speak, have a deferential regard for politicians who have the heart and the ability to make sacrifices.

Many Ghanaians, more often than not, hold people who have the seriousness and

commitment to do the right thing in high esteem.

Indeed, Ghanaians would gregariously warm towards people who have the courage of their aspirations.

And yet some politicians would blatantly betray the trust we repose in them.

Why?

Ghana, as a matter of fact, needs the men and women with the unparalleled wisdom of the Biblical Solomon and the enviable intelligence of the tiny ant to successfully steer the nation in the right direction.

Interestingly, Oxford English dictionary defines intelligence as the faculty of thought and reason or the capacity to acquire knowledge.

On the other hand, knowledge is defined as familiarity, awarenes,s or understandingainedin through experience or study.

Conversely, wisdom is the ability to discern or judge what is true, right or lasting.

Based on the preceding acceptations of intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom, we can deduce that an intelligent person does not necessarily possess wisdom.

We can also postulate that an intelligent person can acquire knowledge, but may also lack the requisite wisdom that would guide the individual to apply such knowledge effectively in his/her day-to-day living activities.

The function of intelligence focuses on questions of how to do and accomplish necessary life- supporting tasks.

While the function of wisdom prompts an individual to consider the consequences of his/her actions both to self and their effects on others.

Wisdom, therefore, evokes questions of whether one should pursue a particular course of action or not.

In Ghana today, we have the elitists who claim perquisite to leadership, albeit the vast majority of our leaders are wisdom-deficient

Of course, we have abundant knowledgeable men and women.

Regretfully, however, many of them do not apply wisdom in their endeavours.

I recall a London Taxi Driver once pontificated somewhat carelessly: “African leaders are not wise”.

The clamorous taxi driver maintained that Africa’s retrogression is largely due to the lack of wisdom on the part of African leaders.

Obviously, I challenged the boisterous taxi driver to provide further and better particulars on his wild claims.

Without mincing words, the strident taxi driver went ahead and pontificated somewhat impetuously that if African leaders are “ indeed wise and upright”, why is it that they persistently empty the national coffers for their own self-aggrandisement, instead of building good roads, hospitals, schools, amongst others?”

“Why are African leaders sitting aloof and allowing some obstreperous foreigners and their criminally-minded Ghanaians to steal Ghana’s mineral resources and destroying lands and water bodies?”

“Why are your leaders persistently negotiating and accepting meagre percentages of your precious minerals with the foreign investors?”

“How come you boast of copious natural resources, and yet remain poorer and poorer amongst nations?”

In fact, I did not agree with the Taxi Driver initially.

But upon a carefully considered reflection, I came to a sad conclusion that the impolitic driver was after all on point, for most African leaders are intelligent, but the stark reality is a sizeable number of African leaders are deficient in wisdom.

I think it is a true reflection in the sense that it is the leadership that takes all the important decisions in the nation-building.

To this end, it would not be far-fetched to attribute the slack in our advancement to the leadership’s persistent awful errors in judgment.

Yes, we have to attribute the looseness in our advancement to the elitists who claim perquisite to politics and leadership.

In Ghana, for instance, it is crystal clear that we have intelligent men and women in important positions, albeit the vast majority of them do not apply the needed wisdom in their day-to-day living activities.

In sum, we should accept the painful fact that so long as we have Leaders that have no vision, that are myopic, that don’t think that every child can be educated and giving skills to excel in this world, so long as we have Leaders that are short-sighted and count their achievements with how much loan they can contract and the number of schools they can remove under trees, so long as we have Leaders that have no vision that are corrupt, greedy, and incompetent, we shall forever remain " Modern day Slaves".