Staying longer in power does not equal corruption - Int’l Diplomatic Consultant

Al Wahab Farouk, an International Diplomatic Consultant, has opined that a political ruler staying longer in power may not necessarily mean that leader is corrupt.

According to him, a leader staying longer in power may mean that such a ruler has a long-term goal that he or she wants to see achieved.

The Diplomatic Consultant shared these thoughts during an interview with Sefa Danquah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show.

“The longer someone stays in power does not make the person corrupt. It is the usage and abuse of power that makes the person corrupt. Ironically, those who were able to tailor their country into success stayed longer because they had a program. Lee Kuan Yew stayed for 31 years, Tunku Abdul Rahman, even Ethiopia Haile Selassie was for how many years. So, some of them stayed longer and had a good plan,” he said.

Narrowing the conversation to Ghana, he was of the view that even though we had practised democracy for a long time, we cannot compare our achievements to that country like China that does not practice democracy.

“If you look at the Chinese history in the fifties and we look at we getting our president at 1957, we are older than them in terms of democracy and they are still not democratic. Does that make China an unsuccessful country? China has gone to the moon but we are here now taking excavators to the forest,” he added.

This sentiment by the diplomatic consultant was highlighted by business mogul, Dr Kofi Amoah, in an earlier interview on the same show when he shared that leaders staying in power for a longer time allows for consistency.

Dr Amoah believed that there needs to be a conversation on the 4-year tenure given to Governments to rule the country.

On his accord, this tenure does not allow politicians to bring out the best they can bring.