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Two major challenges characterize leadership today in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to juggle a growing series of paradoxical demands, do more with less, reduce costs but innovate and think globally, act locally. The other is the unprecedented pace of disruptive change, which accelerates the interaction of these demands and at the same time increases pressure on governments to adapt.
The challenges we face as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic have amplified the need for versatile leaders who have the capacity and the means to cope with a variety of changes and the means to resolve our competing priorities. With what we currently witness, it is not an exaggeration to say that versatility is the most important component to lead today.
His Excellency John Mahama, yesterday, through his Facebook page, had a conversation with the Ghanaians. He showed that he has the ability to read and respond to changes with a wide repertoire of complementary skills and behaviors. What Ghana needs now is to empower leadership that incorporates everyone and brings out its best, non-forceful leadership, which is about affirming personal and positional power. We also need strategic leadership to position the country to be competitive in the long term. We don’t need sweet promises or vague guarantees. We need operational leadership to do things: set the direction, drive execution, focus resources, and introduce innovation to provide order and stability. “The proof of world-class intelligence is the ability to keep two opposing ideas in mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”
The current president and the people around him have a narrow and rigid view of themselves and think that opposing perspectives and suggestions should be avoided rather than experimenting and learning from them. A useful leadership strategy is to periodically invite others with different abilities and perspectives than yours for a coffee or launch. With an open mind, try to see things from their point of view and understand their way of thinking.
Leadership is generally used as a measurement tool for a country’s success. The more successful a leadership is, the better the country is supposed to be. Perhaps, Gabby and his apostles, after listening to the former president, would understand why most Ghanaians vehemently rejected and condemned the promise of the president’s 88 new hospitals. Yes, we need more hospitals, but it is our priority given the number of incomplete health facilities across the country, inadequate equipment to combat the stormy COVID-19 pandemic, lack of education, inefficient testing, and contact locating methods, inadequate preparations in our schools to curb transmissions and infections when children and students return to school, the collapse of businesses and the associated loss of jobs, etc. These are critical challenges that require an immediate and short-term response. We don’t need centric style leadership now. The participation of others, including your critics, is key to success in a democratic environment. The former president demonstrated that he has control over the issues he discussed and an adequate understanding of the problems due to the constant interactions that take place between him and associations, experts, civil society organizations, speakers and other government stakeholders. Sometimes we need that kind of laissez-faire leadership to allow a leader to gather information from experts and highly trained people in all sectors.
All suggestions and advice that the former president offered should receive critical attention. Take power (energy) for example. So far, we have heard people die in the theater during medical operations due to power outages. The problem persisted before Lord Mahama’s inauguration. Under his dynamic leadership, our power generation increased and a huge population fell under electricity coverage and the nation has recovered from the chronic energy crisis of decades. The load shedding that has affected the country intermittently for decades no longer exists. Hospitals and other private health facilities without standby generators are assured of constant power for their operations. Imagine that the temperature test device at the international airport fixed by the Mahama administration during the Ebola epidemic was not there when we started to get imported cases of COVID-19. Yes, other countries have received IMF funds, but can we compare how the leaders of these countries handled and managed the pandemic with the abysmal response that we witnessed in Ghana?
The ICT sector has supported the Covid-19 fight, online learning, working from our homes through the Internet and all that. We are enjoying stable operations on the Internet due to the huge investments made by the last administration in the telecommunications sector. Through the use of ICT, we can bring various types of information related to the covid-19 fight, livelihoods and other private services to the doors of all citizens. These are the basic things we need for the system to respond to epidemics and pandemics when they hit us. The establishment of infectious disease centers, the construction of more laboratories and the improvement of existing ones should be our priority now. We need systems that allow us to carry out exhaustive and efficient tests and follow up on contacts. This is not the time for high promises and subtle campaign stunts.
And Gabby was celebrating the government’s ability to raise $ 7.5 billion. Isn’t that interesting? The economy they described as robust and resilient, and the fastest growing in Africa, could not resist the three-week COVID-19 shock that forced the government to abandon its own promise of NO MORE FROM THE IMF. The economy is seriously ill according to the latest IMF report. The pandemic has exposed the true state of health of the Ghanaian economy, which is why these numerous promises.
What happen with the water! Water is very important in the COVID-19 fight. In four years, the Mahama government brought massive relief to all parts of the country that had suffered permanent water problems. Before leaving office, urban and rural water coverage was close to 80% each.
Author: Andrews Krow
