Frank Aboagye Danyansah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Danywise Estate and Construction Limited, has attacked the competence of political leaders in Africa who have failed to tackle corruption and to create good living conditions for the people.
He also accused some of the leaders of the Region for nurturing ethnic politics and allowing few wealthy and educated individuals to monopolise the political system.
Mr Danyansah who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on African Union Day, which was observed as a statutory public holiday on Thursday, May 25, asked such leaders to “wake up from their slumber”.
He said managers of African economies have failed to introduce robust policies and programmes that would open education opportunities for the vast majority of illiterates wallowing in severe poverty
“Failure of leadership in Africa is the cause of our problems, leaders engage in corruption because they do not have any agenda for their constituencies or countries,” he added.
He described elections in certain countries as “a show of ethnic strength” – which ethnic group is mightier than the other, who comes from which region, and that determines who becomes president of the day.”
The CEO noted that some leaders at many times misled the people and made them believe that “everything is going on well”.
“But the fact is that our economies are only growing on paper, the living conditions of many of our fellow citizens are deplorable, job opportunities are not expanding, laws are not being enforced, and private sector businesses are being killed, largely due to bad policies.
“Leaders should have the ability to identify experts in various fields and make use of their professionalism and knack to drive the continent’s agenda.”
Mr Danyansah claimed that in Ghana it was all about political parties with numbers and not great ideas. “People just vote on party lines and not competency. Very sad indeed.”
He observed that political parties were vehicles to push the common agenda of the people in areas of education, health, infrastructure, agriculture… “But most African countries do not do well in those sectors”.
“Education is the solution, in a country where 65 per cent of the people are illiterates it is a tall hurdle to jump over.”
He called for an end to the “winner takes all syndrome” in the political systems in the continent which he said “has stagnated Africa’s growth”.
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