While I add my bit of thanks to the Students, the Churches and the Professional Bodies who led in the removal of Acheampong, may I also just remind beginning them that  the battle is only just beginning and therefore is their only leadership role too. After all the ouster of Acheampong is not an end in itself but a means to an end– to a better government. If we oust a devil we should find an angel. 

Finding the angel in the political kingdom where a vast majority of the subjects can neither speak, understand, read nor write the political language can be terribly disappointing. This is why the politically lettered who led in doing away with the devil have the morally incumbent obligation to lead the search for the angel. Professional Bodies do claim membership of the political celestial host in which we search. The leadership role in the search therefore rests on the students and the churches alone this time. 

The Students and the Church leaders read the newspapers. They listen to the news. They associate with aspiring leaders. In short, they know them. They therefore have a duty to inform the masses who have come through Commissions of Enquiry unscathed; who turned down ‘gifts’ while in public office; who resigned from Government in protest against bad policies. They should tell us who looted the country’s coffers while in office; who blatantly flouted the country’s laws; who are always arraigned before courts on multiple bribery and fraudulent deal charges; who are hypocrites who want both Unigov. and party politics at the same time. 

The students and the churches must explain to the masses the implications of the hundred of thousands of cedis spent by aspiring leaders on Propaganda T-Shirts and caps, drinks, free transportation to and from party rallies, ‘tips’ to propagandists and zealots and all that. The masses must be in the know of how these aspirants expect to recoup such expenditure if they manage to seize’ power. 

Our independent leaders must not be cowed into uneasy silence with hypocritic exhortation for abstention from politics. Otherwise the struggle SO far would be achieving nothing. They have earned an unalienable stake in the search for effective leadership. They must remember that the masses are still at the mercy of those ‘semi-educated’ opportunists in the various localities who campaign for leaders only when they can dish out money. These same people ensured Acheampong’s success in the last referendum. 

What the Students and the Churches should do is to subject the various aspiring leaders to a meticulous screening and boldly come out with guidelines to the standing of each of them. There is no need to be obsessed with possible division in their ranks once they base their findings on palpable facts. If we fail in our next leadership the consequences will be dangerously disastrous. The Students and the Churches have proved the people’s guide. They are duty-bound to ensure there is no disaster again. They should show light and we follow. 

Joe Desiadenyo Kpenge, 

Kpandu.

 

 

Read other editorials below:

• Student Power of Sorts
• Two More Cars Burnt: Who Burnt Them
• University Students Discuss Future
• The Economics Of University Education 
• Towards A More Meaningful Referendum
• The Catholic Church, The Standard, And National Issues