Election 2024: Lessons of leadership experience
We have experienced expression of disaffection for bad governance through democratic means of National Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Through their ballots, the citizens have spoken very clearly and loudly, asking for change. It is Ghana that has emerged the big winner.
In fact, God spared us from experiencing the action of some adventurous people stepping up to give announcement regarding Ghana’s Fourth Republic as follows; while we were going through National Crises:
The President is overthrown. The Vice President, the Cabinet, and all Government appointees are sacked. • Parliament is dissolved
• The Chief Justice and the Justices of the Superior Courts are dismissed, and
• The Constitution of the Fourth Republic is suspended. (For those of us old enough, that kind of announcement sounds familiar in the bad section of our political history) Ghana, our beloved country, would have descended into the gutter of democratic governance chaos and perhaps another crisis. But God forbid.
It is the great grace of God that Ghana, our beloved country, once again is free through democratic election process. And we shine as a beacon of democracy in Africa and the world.
Ghanaian voters have sent out a strong signal and statement to present and future National Political Leaders: “we detest and abhor governance abuses, when we vote and give you the opportunity to govern!”
This seems to be a ballot revolution. A better option indeed.
Next, we bring up a few lessons of leadership experience from the 2024 Elections and the results. Firstly, that there is the sovereignty of God in national governance matters. The following Bible texts among others affirm this: “God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you” (Psalm 62:10-11 NLT).
“Don’t raise your fists in defiance at the heavens or speak with such arrogance. For no one on earth from east or west, or even from the wilderness should raise a defiant fist. It is God alone who judges; He decides who will rise and who will fall.” (Psalm 75:5-7 NLT).
“This has been decreed by the messengers; it is commanded by the holy ones, so that everyone may know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world. He gives them to anyone He chooses even to the lowliest of people.” (Daniel 4:17 NLT).
“The Message” version of the Bible renders the second part of Daniel 4:17 as follows: “That everyone living will know that the High God rules Human Kingdom, He arranges Kingdom affairs however He wishes, and makes leaders out of losers.”
Such Bible texts should inform our attitudes when we get the opportunity for top leadership positions, including National Political Leadership. The Biblical Majestic God, who alone is Creator, has supreme and sovereign authority over what He has created. The Psalmist drives this point home when he says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him.” (Psalm 24:1 NLT) That God has ultimate power and control over all nations and all its citizens requires our reverence for God and our humble attitude in all of life. Secondly, there is the lesson of “the Power of Leadership example”. In Public service, Daniel was a great example of a lifestyle of godliness with integrity into every area of personal life and serving the nation: “Darius reorganised his kingdom. He appointed one hundred twenty governors to administer all the parts of his realm. Over them were three vice-regents, one of whom was Daniel. The governors reported to the vice-regents, who made sure that everything was in order for the king. But Daniel, brimming with spirit and intelligence, so completely outclassed the other vice-regents and governors that the king decided to put him in charge of the whole kingdom.
The vice-regents and governors got together to find some old scandal or skeleton in Daniel’s life that they could use against him, but they couldn’t dig up anything.
He was totally exemplary and trustworthy. They could find no evidence of negligence or misconduct. So they finally gave up and said, “We’re never going to find anything against this Daniel unless we can scheme up something religious.” (Daniel 6:1-5 the Message).
We must have sound leadership of good character and great competence, integrity and excellence to experience good outstanding governance. Our own Professor Stephen Adei Emeritus Professor and former Rector of GIMPA is documented for saying “Leadership is cause, everything else is effect.” This he says simply means that for better or worse, it is the point leader who determines the way the family, or company, or nation moves towards good success or failure.
“The Power of leadership example” is so essential that it is required for those who will serve as leaders in the Biblically Healthy Church: “Set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 ESV) “This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be a church leader, he desires an honorable position.”
So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. He must not be a heavy drinker or be violent.
He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. A church leader must not be a new believer, because he might become proud, and the devil would cause him to fall. Also, people outside the church must speak well of him so that he will not be disgraced and fall into the devil’s trap. ” (1 Timothy 3:1-4, 6-7 NLT).
The character and lifestyle of integrity is critical to the success of a leader. And godly virtues are essential for good governance.
Arrogance, pride, intransigence, and being greedy for money, are characteristics of bad leaders and bad governance. So also are nepotism, cronyism and haughty spirit.
Good character and discipline are essential for good leadership and good National governance. In fact, David P. Campbell has referred to the “dark-side of leadership of Richard Fuld the CEO who presided over the disintegration, destruction, and bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, and bringing the World’s financial system close to disaster”; meanwhile in a 5-year period he was paid $300 million.
He remarks, “Often the only difference between chaos and a smoothly running company (or Government) is leadership!” Selecting, appointing or electing a good leader is extremely important! Yet as a consultant in authentic Christian Spirituality, Leadership and Missions, I relish in the interactional framework of leadership. It sees leadership as a function of three elements – the point leader; the followers; and the context (situation, environment, culture).
So leadership is a product of or something happening as a result of complex interactions between the leader, the followers and the situation (context, culture) of the company, church or country. Do we have strong institutional structures in the country? What is the culture of the church or company? (Culture is simply, “the way we do things here”).
In fact, it is said that in many situations, the “culture” of the company or church will eat up the vision of the point leader for breakfast; and makes it hard to see the vision realised. So perhaps we may have to say that for some of the woes of Ghana today, the citizens are culpable.
As Kobina Ansah, a Mirror Newspaper Columnist says, “Our problem in this nation is a character problem. Our progress has been retarded for all these years not because we are not skilled enough; but because many of us don’t have enough good character. We teach our children to cut corners by buying their way through life. Honesty is a rare commodity on the national market. Our desire for profits even makes many of us sell expired goods (including medication) to our fellow citizens. Some people repackage spoilt goods and still sell them to others because they have no sense of humanity. And that is where the problem is – a character problem”. We need a national moral compass or moral code to follow. In fact, we need a “moral revolution” that will significantly shape the leaders (the government), the followers (the citizens) and the culture (the way we do things).
The President Elect, His Excellency John Mahama is right when in his acceptance speech he says the better future of Ghana will involve him and his team as well as the contributions of all citizens of the Nation! But how did we get to the deep levels of economic and other mess?
“Why does decline happen even to those who appear invincible?” asks Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”. He writes on five stages of decline: 1. Decline kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement; and they lose sight of the underlying factors that would create sustained success.
2. Undisciplined pursuit of more – more scale, more projects, more borrowing.
3. Denial of risk and peril – explain away critical data.
4. Grasping for rescue. Undisciplined decisions and actions take their toll leading to visible decline or even crises.
5. Capitulate to irrelevance or collapse. Accumulated setbacks cause leaders to abandon all hope of building a great future (“Ghana without Aid” principle abandoned?) Yet companies and governments who are “fully aware of and conscious of a road map to decline, can pause, and apply the brakes early and reverse the decline.”
He adds, “Often a company (government) decline is largely self-inflicted, and recovery largely within our own control” Jim Collins remarks; “Decline can be avoided; Decline can be detected; Decline can be reversed.”
This is a leadership lesson we need to reflect on in our current crisis situation! Finally, there is the leadership lesson of the need for pastoral care and counselling for both “the happy” and “the hurting” after the 2024 Election.
For example, don’t we need to pay immediate attention to giving relief that we can feel in our pockets; and food to eat, and clean water to drink? There are other leadership lessons for reflection including President-Elect His Excellency John Mahama “managing the rare grace privilege of a second chance to serve as President”; we want to live in peace and human dignity.
We guess you can work on your own list of leadership lessons and make life in Ghana better for all!
The writer is a Consultant in Authentic Christian Spirituality and Discipleship and Former CEO of Scripture Union