Our leaders steal money – Prof Adei

Former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Professor Stephen Adei, has said Ghanaian leaders do not only steal from the state coffers, but also direct their energies in the wrong direction.

“Our leaders are worse than iron fists. They may not be harsh, brutal, killing people, but they are stealing money, doing everything else. In fact, our people are strong in the wrong direction, Prof Adei told Bernard Avle on the Citi Breakfast Showon Wednesday.

The economist believes Ghanaian leaders have failed in instituting the right mechanisms that will spur development for the benefit of citizens.

According to him, he realised that there was a huge gap between Ghana and some Asian countries he visited decades ago, in terms of the positive turnaround that those leaders effected in their countries.

“As an economist, the UNDP allowed me to tour most of the Asian countries to see their systems. They were not angels, but I saw that they have effective transformational leaders. I decided to teach myself leadership to turn GIMPA into a leadership training institution.”

He explained that Asian leaders like Lee Kwan Yew “were very passionate about the development of their countries. They had vision, they had an agenda.”

In comparison to Ghana, he said leaders like former President John Rawlings didn’t have the leadership qualities and capabilities of the “Lee Kwan Yews and the rest” to effect the needed change.

Commenting on the tenure of former president Kwame Nkrumah, he said the post-republican regime of Ghana’s first president caused the nation’s failure.

“Despite the first decade of Nkrumah’s wonderful period, he was one of the worst leaders – murderous, despotic and everything else.”

“If you look at Ghana between 1963 and 1964, every macro-economic variable came to a halt. [There was] inflation, deficit, external balances – everything! The only thing that was strong in those years was operations,” he added.