Leaders must set good example —Prophet Asi

Leaders at the helm of affairs in all spheres of life in the country must lead by example and not rhetorics, the Founder and General Overseer of Cooperative Fire Ministry, Apostle Godwin Lutheran Asi, has advised.

He said the call for a revival of positive cultural values, the need for attitudinal change as well as benefiting from hard work, must be exhibited by leaders across the board instead of it being more of words.

He said due to the greed of some leaders whose aim was to amass wealth at the slightest chance and corruption, Ghana had been brought to its knees and many people now saw that as the means to making it in life. 

“For many people, the talk about changing our attitudes and mindsets about things and situations, and working hard to prosper has become more talk, because they do not see the actions of most of the leaders to reflect what they tell them.

“Now, more than ever, all our leaders in society must lead lives worthy of emulation to reflect the things they tell us every day.” Apostle Asi said in an interview with the Daily Graphic while sharing his reflections on Ghana’s 66th independence celebration.

Brain drain

Apostle Asi was worried that the situation in the country at the moment was aggravating the brain drain the country had suffered and said it was time for leaders to deliberately work to make the structures and systems more effective and efficient to keep the country’s human resource which would contribute to its development and progress.

He said the lack of opportunities and the fact that the chance to get access to employment was dependent on ‘whom you know’ more than on qualification and on merit, had increased the rate at which particularly, the youth, wanting to leave the country in search of greener pastures.

He described the situation as worrying and urged leaders to make the system and structures work and provide equal opportunities for everyone regardless of where one was from or which political party they supported.

“In the past, people were being forcefully taken away as slaves. Today, due to economic hardship and lack of fair opportunities, you would be surprised the number of people who would rush to board if a plane was brought in for them to board to other countries with better opportunities.”

“Many people want to leave. Even well trained doctors, nurses and other professionals are all keen to leave to get better working conditions and reward simply because compared to elsewhere, those are lacking in their workplaces, not to talk of remuneration.

“As a nation, we have to use the resources God has blessed us with to create opportunities for people,” he stressed.

Economic dependence

Apostle Asi said after 66 years of being independent, given the fact that the country was blessed with both natural and human resources, Ghana should have by now, created an environment for everyone to thrive.

“Ghana is not a poor country. It is blessed with both human and natural resources. The problem is how to manage it and instead of these being a blessing, they are becoming a curse as we see the way people are mining the resources illegally and posing threats to the environment.

“The difference has been leadership and after 30 years of constitutional rule, there must be something more substantial in making the economy more value and export driven than import driven, else we remain dependent on other countries economically,” Prophet Asi stressed.

He thus called for more support for the private sector to create the needed jobs, as well as strengthening vocational skills education to help fill up the opportunities that would be created.

Future

The man of God said the future of the country was bright and encouraged the youth of today who will be the leaders of tomorrow, not to be discouraged by their present circumstances but rather, plan and work hard towards it.

“The future is bright but we must work towards it. We must see our future from today and start planning for it. No decent job is dirty, we must start small and take up honourable and rewarding jobs instead of thinking of making fast money,” Prophet Asi advised the youth.