Founder’s day, a day set aside to celebrate the life and visionary leadership of the freedom fighter, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. As I sat down to reflect on the little I know from his life, many things crossed my mind, one of which is what I want to share with you.
As a leader, not all your followers or opposition members will share in your vision but if you are certain of the importance and benefits of your vision, pursue it by any means. I’ve heard that in times that Kwame Nkrumah was engaging in huge huge infrastructure such as the Akosombo Dam and the Accra-Tema motorway, there were hues and cries from the opposition because they thought it was a waste of public resources since the population at the time was around 6 million and the projects were too big for them but today we see that even those projects which seemed humongous at that time are now inadequate. What would have happened if he had allow the opposition to detract him from those projects?
That said, I would want to add that leadership style shouldn’t be a one way alley. A leader should be able to blend autocracy with democracy but should not be too democratic or only autocratic, the latter posture which unfortunately, led to the overthrow of Dr. Nkrumah and led to Arab spring or uprising in recent times.
Dr. Nkrumah’s decision to make Ghana a one party state became his undoing.
I believe that he did that because he had a lot in mind and therefore thought that a change in government will alter many of his plans as we see today when there’s a change of government but I also believe that if he had allowed democracy and a multi-party system, his party would have still won power and not find itself in the state it finds itself now. I say this with respect to the fact that Nelson Mandela’s party is still in power despite the fact that he himself led the party in only one term of office instead of entrenching himself in power though he had the means to do so.
That’s where we have to draw the line. Sometimes, we may have good intentions and plans but we can’t force ourselves on the people. We should rather let our legacy speak on our behalf and let the people decide whether they still want us or not.
Let’s reflect on the state of the nation on founder’s day.
