Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu
The temperature in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has appreciated worryingly. At such times in the life of one of the dominant political groupings in the country, especially as it faces an impending internal election in which the stakes are exceedingly high, the kingmakers need guidance to make the right choice, more so when desperation has triggered untoward conduct from some candidates.
Open vitriolic, baseless accusations amplified by the media do not inure to our good political health as a democracy whose unwritten standards are truth, integrity and nationalism.
Those who do not exude the foregone should not be considered for the important position of leading a political grouping with the ultimate aim of winning power and forming a government.
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, former NPP Majority Leader, deserves a feather in his cap for proffering suggestions to delegates about what criteria to use in determining who leads the party.
He certainly could not have gotten it wrong when he said the appropriate candidate should be one with a vision for the country. Come to think about it, many people can mount the seat of leadership of the country but not all these persons have what it takes to think ahead of today and to come up with appropriate projects to move the country forward.
A vision about how to change the face of education, business, health and so on is a critical attribute of who should lead.
It took the vision of one man to work towards the introduction of medical deliveries through drones and to facilitate mobile interoperability to change the previously impossible state of the status quo when such transfers were restricted to one’s dedicated network. Visionary personalities are mothers of inventions. The outcome of their thoughts makes life easier and more productive for today’s generations and those yet unborn.
The ease with which credits for utilities are purchased from the comfort of our homes or wherever did not come from the blue; it came from somebody’s imagination and actualisation of this. Let us not take these strides for granted but to know that before then, things were done differently and the dividends being reaped now not existing. The losses then recorded have given way to less human interface and therefore profits.
The gold purchasing programme, gold for oil initiatives and the accompanying dividends being witnessed today emanated from somebody’s search for better way of doing things.
Delegates should look out for the track records of personalities when they held public office. How did such persons perform their statutory functions as established by law and the outcome thereof? These are not difficult to fathom even for the ordinary person with little or no information about national developments.
The right choice should be one whose remarks are not steeped in mendacity and can pass the test of authenticity. That is the person who should lead any political party and country because that candidate is a potential president. We cannot afford to have a Commander-in-Chief who is a liar and who does not think it is important to apologise when their remarks fail the authenticity test.
They should not be arrogant who seek to lead. Flaunting riches and regarding the poor contemptuously should deny candidates the vote of the discerning.
Is it still difficult to decide on who to lead the NPP and the country?