Lessons from P. V.
The sudden demise of the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Mr Paul Victor Obeng, who was affectionately called PV, is indeed, a great loss to Ghana.
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This is, especially, because he was one of the few politicians, who, in spite of their open membership of identifiable political parties, showed clearly that they were not in politics to necessarily promote their parties’ perpetual stay in office, but were in for the general good of the nation.
Far from attempting to remind the family of the late Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, a former Minister of Finance in the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of their loss, one can firmly say that Mr Baah-Wiredu was also one of the fine politicians who transcended party affiliations and acted like a true statesman that Ghana really needed.
While writing this piece, I asked my colleagues in the office to name some Ghanaian politicians, who were, clearly, card-bearing members of party A or B, but spoke and acted generally as statesmen who rose above partisanship and worked for the nation – Ghana.
Of course, they mentioned PV and Mr Baah-Wiredu. Another name that came up was a former NDC Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Ibn Chambas. Dr Chambas was so solid that the world saw the good in him and was appointed to serve various international bodies.
He was the United Nations and African Union (AU) Joint Special Representative for Darfur. He was involved in peace mediation efforts in Liberia and also served as the Secretary General of African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States.
He was also the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), from 2006 to 2009 and the Executive Secretary of ECOWAS from 2002 to 2005.
Though PV did not take his fine political work into the international arena as Mr Chambas has done, he did enough to merit the accolade of a true statesman.
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Trained as a Mechanical Engineer, he worked like a perfect engine, serving as a politician who promoted consensus instead of partisanship and kicked against entrenched standing on matters of national interest.
His excellent work ethics and unifying spirit secured him a lot of top jobs, including chairman of many state institutions and corporate organsisations.
Space will not permit me to list all the bodies to which PV was connected in one way or the other, but obviously he is the type of leader that Ghana deserves and needs – NOW!
For those “small, small boys” in politics, who think that the “game” is all about being loud and rude to anybody who criticises them or disagrees with the policies of their parties, PV’s life should serve as a good book from which they must pick some useful lessons and mend their broken ways.
Some politicians, particularly the very young ones, speak on air as if they have the power over death and also possess the wisdom to answer every question.
“My people,” take your time to learn the political game in order to master it well enough to serve Ghana better, so that when you die, Ghanaians will have something good to say about you.
It is sad to say, but the way some of you are misbehaving, people will definitely speak ill of you even in death and that will be bad because culturally, Ghanaians do not denigrate the dead.
Those of you “talking overspeed” and not doing much in your political offices, please, PV’s life story is written all over the place; learn something quickly! If you cannot read it in books, at least you can hear a bit of it on air, now that Ghana is mourning him.You better learn something good from it quickly before it is too late.
Catch me here: Wasiedus@gmail.com / Follow me on Twitter @WillieAsiedu.