We need leaders who don't care about second terms - Prof. Gyampo

Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo says it is about time Ghana got a president who is ready to go against political influencers and investors and serve the people as expected.

According to him, Ghana needs a president whose agenda is not to win a second term as that is the

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He said, “It is important that governments that are given the mandate of the people to govern looks at the broader interest of all of us and not surround themselves with a group of people and their support base who feels that they have that sense of entitlement”.

Prof. Gyampo, speaking on Citi TV’s ‘Point of View’ stated that a lot goes into the selection of a flagbearer or president behind the scenes and the influencers who make it possible have an upper hand when their choice wins power.

“We don’t have anything we call public funding of political parties and we have monetized our politics to the point that before you become president it is somebody who pays all the bills – your campaign, your giant billboards and all those things – and so once you’re given the mandate to govern you have so many unseen interests and influencers around you who manage you and want to determine what you should do and what you shouldn’t be doing.”

He noted that these influencers usually misguide the leadership for their own benefit.

“You may mean well but because of these people of influence and people who contributed to making you who you are, are also around so to be able to deal with some of these challenges, you’ll need a leader who doesn’t care about second term. You’ll need a leader who comes in with the right psyche and right mentally saying that ‘this is what I stand for and I ‘m not looking for a second term to service, I want to do what I can do now.’ Often times they mean well and get in and they want to serve and then these people also come in and say that ‘well if you serve the people as you a supposed to be serving then we would not benefit,” he revealed.

Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education, Josephine Nkrumah, adding her voice to the discussion noted that a leader is bound to fail if the people around him have a negative approach to politics.

“The larger groups around you should be able to hold you up and if those people fundamentally have a warped mentality as to what politics is about, what democracy is about, what the wellbeing of the people is about, then you are bound to fail,” she noted.

The two panellists agreed that our leaders should focus on making the lives of the people they have been elected to serve better and not on pleasing a few people who they can retain power.