Religion, ethnicity and democracy have no place in determining and choosing good and productive leaders in every dispensation.
What is needed is a good leader; attributes being honesty, innovation, resilience and focus among others. It is not about monetary wealth but wealth of ideas, which can change the fortunes of a country positively.
History was made in the Big Apple after Zohran Mamdani won New York’s mayoral election, defying the efforts of billionaires and the American President Donald Trump to deny him the opportunity to serve his New Yorkers.
His religious and demography were no factors in this part of the world where political civility rules.
There are lessons to be learnt from the epoch-making development from the mayoral polls in New York had monetary wealth been a factor, the winner would have come nowhere near the victory he clinched.
When he set out on the record-making journey, many did not believe he could make it; but he has made it, which shows what resilience can do even in the tightest of races.
We would have expected that all things being equal, the Jewish factor would have played against a Mamdani victory, but it rather added to his fortunes. The reason is not far-fetched; ethnocentric and faith bigotry have no place where credible, result-oriented and focused leaders are required.
New York has showed the way for others who might still be clothed in their unwanted and antiquated bigotries to follow.
Shouldn’t such bigots abandon their dozy ideas as they throw tantrums in their bid to win the hearts of delegates in the internal elections of one of Ghana’s dominant political parties? Sure they should, because we have grown past the dark ages of politics.
We need leaders who can think about how to deliver medical products to underserved or not served locations and to leverage upon digital technology in a fast moving world.
Intemperate language and bigotries are functions of backwardness and present those who spot these as unfit to seek leadership regardless of how much they have stashed in their kitties.
As we pointed out in an earlier commentary on the subject, Kwame Nkrumah having observed the trend in our early independence politics passed the Avoidance of Discrimination Act of 1957. That so many years in our independence status such traits continue to rear their ugly heads, shows how some of us still live in the dark years.
Kwame, the alias of Zohran Mamdani, the New Yorker, was born in Uganda having relocated to the US courtesy of his parents. He could not have stood the dollar might of his closest competitor, Andrew Cuomo, whose supporters poured in billions of dollars down the toilet to ensure his loss, as a writer for The American Prospect, Ryan Cooper, wrote in the November 4, 2025 edition, “New York City didn’t submit to a campaign of flagrant bigotry from disgraced two-time loser Cuomo; Americans, particularly young ones, can still be politically inspired by a good candidate with a good message; and, not least of all, a bunch of MAGA billionaires flushed millions and millions of dollars down the toilet losing to a brown, Muslim democratic socialist”. According to Forbes, no fewer than 28 billionaires donated at least $100,000 to stop Mamdani, including Daniel Loeb, Barry Diller, Steve Wynn, Reed Hastings, and Alice Walton.
Of course these are great lessons for us in Ghana.