One by one he called them for introduction. There were some, he spoke of highly, and they in turn thanked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the trust he had reposed in them. We watched and clapped to end the symbolism that represented the nomination of these people into the high office of Ministers.
What it means is that these are the people who would help President Akufo-Addo implement his policies to bring about the change we all yearn for. However, it is not all of them who understand very well their roles and may mess up. It is not only the ministers, but also, the confidants who have the ears of President Akufo-Addo who may lie to him.
Sadly for President Akufo-Addo, he may never get to know the truth about what some would do wrong because of the position he occupies. In fact, the Presidency is a lonely position. During an interaction with Accra-based correspondents of foreign media organisations, former President John Dramani Mahama admitted, that he felt lonely sometimes. He described leadership, as a lonely and difficult job. He was the second President to admit this to me. The late Togolese President, Eyadema Gnassingbe, once admitted this to me. He said: “it is a position where you are likely to lose true friends and replace them with bootlickers who have nothing to offer you but destruction.”
l witnessed the then Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, in his days as Chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) – in my days as a Castle Correspondent – cocooned alone in his office with armed soldiers and civilians all over; from the entrance of the Castle to the office he occupied. There were times l wondered how one could survive that loneliness.
I also saw the late Libyan leader in Tripoli, the late Muammar Gaddaffi, hidden behind what was more of a fortress against an invading force than a home and office. Receiving various heads of state under his tent, he smiled and joked, but you noticed the strain on his face. It was also another sight when former Chadian leader, Goukouni Wedeye, arrived at a hotel in Tripoli to be interviewed. The small man was surrounded by over thirty security guards.
Leadership is a situation that can keep you away from reality. Just ask those who are occupying management positions about how it feels to be kept all alone in their offices.
All these show that leaders do not have it as easy as we all imagine. Forget about the dispatch riders who announce their presence in the streets. Ignore the goodies they may be enjoying and you would see a crying soul. These are people who need our sympathy. They might have put themselves up for election or taken over the position by themselves but, from all l have seen about people in leadership position, they suffer silently.
Apart from the loneliness they suffer, it does look that they are easily misled by people who are able to get to them. Some of these people engage in gossips or destroy other people in order to remain in the good books of the leaders. Former chairman of Lagos State Property Development Corporation, Prince Kayode Olowu, once told a Nigerian newspaper that President Goodluck Jonathan was surrounded by bad advisers who did not mean well for his government and politics.
Olowu said most of those who had the ear of the president were primarily interested in using him for their own personal aggrandisement and enrichment, regardless of the effect of such on his political image. “I beg the president, in the name of the Almighty God, to stop listening to those who want to steal Nigeria out of existence, who go by the name of advisers. He is a good man with a lot of good luck, but Nigeria has proved to be too much for him. Governance has really overwhelmed him,” Olowu added. This shows that it is not only in Ghana that our leaders are surrounded by people who do not mean well for them.
Unfortunately, because of the way they have been kept away from the public, it is difficult for them to break out of their ‘hostage’ situation to think properly. Consequently, they have to rely on some of these dubious people around them who, most of the time, simply destroy them. How would you be able to know the real truth when those around you cover your eyes and ears? They give you only things they think you should know and see. In the process, the truth is hidden from you.
The so-called close confidantes with their personal agendas are able to gradually turn the leaders away from people who may be bold to speak their minds. They make these straight talkers look like enemies but in most cases, they are not. One politician has told me he does not understand it but, it looks like whilst in power, “we liked to listen to gossip and those who come to make us feel good.”
That must be the reason why in traditional societies, our elders confine our chiefs to fortify them before they are introduced to the public. The “talismans” on their arms are not for decoration and the men who sit around them do not look mean for nothing. These are all part of the efforts to fight off evil spirits and people with bad intentions who might want to make the leaders their hostages.
Unfortunately, when it comes to political office, we just swear-in the leaders and then leave them to be on their own.
It is true that our Presidents took a personal decision to get to that office, but one point we seem to be losing is that if they fail, it affects the country in general. That is the reason we should be looking at how to prepare them for the office as well as create conditions so that no group of people hijacks them for their personal benefit. We need to be looking at creating a group of national prayer warriors from the various faiths so that depending on which side our leaders come from, these people would help them in prayers. It would be a good thing that a week before the swearing-in, whoever is President, is kept somewhere and prayed for fervently before he takes office.
For those who may think this is a joke they should just think of the number of people who are either praying to be considered for positions, or those who just want to get one favour or the other. If they are not Christians, they might be consulting ‘Mallams’ and various shrines.
That is the reason why, we need to pray for the man daily. In the long-term, we should be looking at how to make it a national affair to get people to pray for our leaders. That is the only way we would be able to get them in the right frame of mind to provide the leadership we want. Simply leaving them on their own means that we are failing in our duty to protect those who lead us.
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