Here and now, the leadership question
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

I am prompted to write a response to the perennial search for leaders in this land of ours and the comfort we take in the sentiment we express that "The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born." My response is that the sought leaders are here among us - here and now.

But in case they are not, then the question is do we have the capacity to allow leadership to happen or flourish amongst us?

There is serious doubt that our collective mindset, as a people, will allow the kind of leadership we seek. Note that I didn't say we lack the material to make good leaders. The sentiment here is whether we have "the capacity" to allow it to happen."

For now, this romantic fantasy that allows us to yearn constantly while we look for the future for grand leadership rules.  This notion that implies that the current generation is not "beautiful" enough to provide the leadership we need has become a splendid fantasy because it allows us the means to escape our own failings rather than being a catalyst for a search for true leadership.

The inception of this notion must have been at the publication of Ayikwei Armah’s book, “The Beautiful Ones Are not yet Born.”

Ayikwei Armah, a Ghanaian novelist, was of the idealistic hope, at the time of writing his book, that our salvation was to be found with children yet to be born.

Good wishes to Ayikwei, but he wrote this at a time when Nkrumah was in power. And his book promptly became the nadir or despair expressed by some intellectuals, who on their own could not tell a good leader from a bad one. 

We know this now because some 40 years after Nkrumah, we realize and recollect our loss of a great leader.

Having faith in a future expressed in the potential of our children, is not a bad idea. In fact, it is sane to hope that our children surpass us in glory and achievements because it is a healthy way for a nation to hope to progress.

Thus, there ought not to be anything wrong in believing that “The Beautiful Ones Are not Yet Born.”  In this sense, Ayikwei's book expresses a sentiment for a better future. The problem is with those who place their hope in the future only to deny what could take place in the present.

The above is what is happening nationally among some skeptics.  They have turned this "beauty" concept into a practical posture for progress and for doing nothing about the leadership problems of the present. Sadly, such precept of how to look for leaders is allowing to happen the very failures in leadership that we must seek to avoid today.

True, Ayikwei Armah’s book, published in 1968, talks about corruption in the post independence political system.  But, there is no disguising the fact that he was writing about the leadership in Nkrumah's era.

Ayikwei’s theme may have its dramatic appeal, especially for those who, at the time, were pointing fingers at the Nkrumah’s regime as the most corrupt. But the reality is that some 40 years later, we are now celebrating him. Our failure to use adequately the leadership he provided is the lesson worth memorizing.

When our hopes are constantly pushed into a receding future, constantly waiting for a “messiah;” to arrive, something else, usually one unpalatable, is bound to happen in the interim.

Regretfully, the minimum outcome is we become victims of the big time loudmouths and incompetent bullies, the less than average leadership types who have ruled, and had gone on to create deep flaws in governance for us. This approach has done enough damage.

The leadership we have today may not be stellar. But caution: Perhaps, all that may be required now is adequate management in a leader. It is beyond reason to expect that our society can replicate an Nkrumah in every generation.  But without doubt, it is likely that a know it all, boorish and a loudmouth society can kill the chances of a Kufuor

Even if we were to accept the exceptional leadership of Nkrumah as a necessary benchmark, there will always be the risk of throwing away the efforts of others who would otherwise be supremely adequate for the job at hand.

There should be comfort in thinking about the future in the sense that each generation that shows up will have among them individuals with enough common sense to govern adequately.  Of course, some generations will do better than others. But all that should be required is integrity, intellectual honesty, creativity and boldness - on our part as a people as well us among those who would generationally seek to lead us.

Meanwhile, the wish for a future “messiah,” or a ‘beautiful one” must be curbed. To implore the future to bring good leaders, while we waste current potential at the same time, with equal rate of intensity, is at best a folly.

Good leaders, whether in the present or future, will come in human terms and attributes. Contrast this to our real operative philosophy of life expressed daily in our streets and society; the “Obia nye obia” mentality, meaning everybody is equal in abilities. Thus, we deny exceptionalism among us, yet we continue to look for the future to make up the difference – to give us exceptional leaders.

For now, reverence should not be reserved for the known bully and the loudmouth in our society.


E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, July 13, 2010

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