POLITICIANS NEED TO BE GROOMED (PAGE 18)

The President of the Full Gospel Church International, Rt. Reverend Samuel Norye Mensah, has suggested that politicians who are put in leadership positions to enforce laws must be groomed to enable them to perform to meet the aspirations of the electorate.
He explained that indiscipline on the roads , annual floods, poor state of health facilities, lack of supervision and enforcement of law and order gave a gloomy picture that Ghana had a serious leadership crises.
Rt. Rev. Mensah was expressing his opinion on some challenges facing the nation in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Tema.
He expressed dissatisfaction with everyone, including politicians, who he said were just explaining problems, forgetting that leaders were rather supposed to solve them. Rt. Rev. Mensah called on political office holders to stop the blame game because leaders did not pass the buck.
Rt. Rev. Mensah observed that most politicians, including majority of those who were in managerial positions in organisations, had become ‘fire fighters rather than fire preventers.'
To him, it appeared Ghanaians did not know where the nation was moving and questioned 'how and why politicians should manage the affairs of the nation with a “fire fighting mentality”.
Rt. Rev. Mensah said sector ministers should have goals, and well-defined vision and be given targets to meet.
He cited the road and transport, education, town and country p and health sectors as areas whose administrators should act swiftly.
Rt. Rev. Mensah said in the road sector, for example, hawking on the streets had become the order of the day, as traffic lights frequently broke down, coupled with indiscipline on the roads.
In the education sector, he expressed concern about the constant change of curricula, adding that even now teachers and students did not have some of the needed textbooks for their courses.
He alleged that some lapses in the ministry had led to 106 students missing the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination(BECE ).
He said flooding had become an annual affair to talk about, but nothing practical was done about it apart from just the visits to flood-prone areas with media personnel and cameras.
Rt. Rev. Mensah said it was pathetic to see Ministers of State fly in a helicopter, taking aerial view of floods, and yet nothing came out of it. He described this annual ritual as a waste of taxpayers’ money.
With the health sector, Rt. Rev. Mensah sighed, and asked why it should take a minister to give ultimatum for en elevator to be repaired when there were officials in charge of the various facilities, stressing that “nothing works, and no one is held responsible”.
Rt. Rev. Mensah called on the government to engage the services of leadership consultants to take political leaders through courses to upgrade their skills.
.He called on Ghanaians to demand good governance and accountability from their leaders.
He commended the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu, for showing the way and changing the face of the country's chieftaincy institution by reconciling the nation and setting up funds for the needy.
Rt. Rev. Mensah described the Asantehene’s initiatives as a sign of good leadership. because he had the concerns of the people at heart.
He also commended some media houses, including the Daily Graphic, for writing to bring out problems, which needed to be tackled by the government, and urged them to continue with the good work.