From Eric’s Diary: After we shout, we will beat you and knock on your head- Ghana’s new leadership style

It has been a while. I know. Some have said in your mind that it is because “his government has come to power, so he sees no evil.”

Others have said “he has lost the urge to write because it may affect the issuance of his appointment letter.” I say, I am gradually losing interest in continuing this column. So don’t be surprised if I cease writing. That’s because I am getting tired of repeating myself.

I started this column in 1999 in the Daily Dispatch. I took a long break from 2001 and resumed in 2021. Somehow, many of the issues I have written about in the past keep recurring. Between 2021 and now, I have had cause to query the leadership styles of some of our leaders and pointed them to the tenets of good leadership.

I can easily recall my thoughts on IGP George Akufo-Dampare, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Kissi Agyebeng, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, and Alexander Afenyo-Markin, to mention a few. Yet, the inadequacies of our leaders keep showing up.

I abandoned the urge to write about the shouting bout engaged in by the Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, during the Adum fire incident in Kumasi a while ago, after I had written the intro.

Then the new Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Richard Kwasi Ofori Boadi, alias King Zuba, went about threatening to beat traders who flout ‘no hawking on pavement’ rules. Once again, I shoved off the urge to hit the keypad.

Now, it is Alexander Afenyo-Markin again, knocking a Police officer on the head for preventing him from entering Parliament as leader of the ‘Save the Judiciary’ demonstrators. How? I don’t get it.

So, I retrieved the script for Dr Amoakohene’s epistle.

The shouting leader

Here is how I started- “True test of leadership is how well you function in crisis” – Brian Tracy.

And the TikTok Doctor turned Ashanti Regional Minister- Dr Frank Amoakohene failed the test.

My view is that Dr Amoakohene failed in his first outing as a leader in crisis. Why? Because leadership is about results not complaints and shouts. This is where I stopped.

His shouts on personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service for allegedly deceiving him over availability or otherwise of water in a fire engine in the full glare of media cameras smacked of showmanship rather than leadership. Remember he is a TikToker? He gave vim to the oft held view that knowledge is not enough, experience is.

That’s because after that sterling performance during his vetting, one would have expected an ‘A’ performance in the line of duty. But alas! Pursuant to my belief that leadership is about results, I expected him to have solved the problem he was shouting about immediately, and chastised the firemen, if necessary, later behind closed doors.

Of course, not chastising for the sake of it. But schooling them on how best that hitch could have been averted and warning them sternly that a recurrence would not be countenanced.

After the dust settled on this faux pas, he exhibited another sign of inexperience in leadership by granting a 2-week ultimatum to illegal miners to continue their illegality with full media coverage. Who does that? You don’t give ultimatum for illegalities to be stopped. You nib it in the bud. If you must, for humanitarian reasons, you do so off camera.

This indiscretion on his part set me thinking. Has this man ever been through a leadership course besides his medical training? Did he receive any form of orientation before being handed over that office in the Regional Coordinating Council with the comfortable swivel chair to sit on and a chauffeur-driven Toyota Landcruiser? I doubted.

The beating leader

Those who held brief for Dr Amoakohene at the time, suggested that he was overwhelmed by the job because Kumasi did not have a mayor when the Adum Fire incident occurred.

Then the Mayor came in. With 55 out of 56 votes cast to confirm him, he set out to decongest the city in military fashion.

“I have my own democratic military style, which I will be implementing. When we say leave this place and you don’t leave this place, and I get there, and you’re not lucky and my boys are with me, there and then, we will beat you,” the then few days old Mayor threatened at a press conference.

This set me wondering what kind of scrutiny went into his nomination for automatic approval by the members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA). Was he made to present his vision for the role? Did the specific question of “What is your plan for decongesting the city”, come up during his vetting? If so, what was the answer? Beat the traders away from the pavements? Well! Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

As a good leader, one would have expected him to hold a meeting with the traders who pay tolls for the upkeep of the KMA, to discuss how best the decongestion exercise could be done. At this forum, he could then have agreed on a deadline with them for all to evacuate. Failing which forced evacuation, not beating, could have been enforced.

Thank God that he backtracked barely 24 hours later. “The threat to lash the traders will not happen because of compliance with the directive. I believe we won’t get there because some of them have started complying,” he said on almost every radio and TV station in the country the following day.

That’s obviously because of the backlash he received from critics nationwide. Since then, he has toned down in his public speeches.

It is worth bringing in the Minister for Communication, Digital and Innovation, Mr Sam Nartey George, at this point. Not because he has misbehaved like Frank and Richard, but he comes across to me during public speeches and engagements as someone who is still in campaign mode- addresses issues, in a manner and tone, as if members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are his primary target audience.

I wish to humbly remind ‘Tseko’ that as Minister of Communication, his audience is wider, hence must bear that in mind.

Leadership lessons at last

Thankfully, an Executive Leadership Programme (ELP) has been held for all President Mahama’s appointees in Ada.

Under the theme: “Re-imagining Leadership in a ‘Reset’ Ghana,” the programme marked a bold step toward renewing public leadership, advancing responsive governance, and driving transformational change across Ghana.”

Very reassuring if you ask me. The question though is, why put the cart before the horse? Better still, why close the stables when the horses have bolted? Better late than never, the adage goes. Well.

My reading revealed that “the programme provided an opportunity to strengthen strategic leadership, foster inter-ministerial collaboration, and equip the leaders to navigate the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity shaping today’s governance landscape.”

And President Mahama is reported to have said, “Ghana stands at a crossroads, faced with diverse challenges. We must lead differently, think differently and act differently, as the true measure of our success is the lives we touch and the legacy we leave behind.” Very apt- A word to the wise…

The head-knocking leader

Evidently, despite his high position in the country, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin could not benefit from the above-referenced training session. That’s because he belongs to the mini-Minority in Parliament.

Therefore, he did what he knows how best to do- show off the little power Ghanaians have bestowed on him by knocking a Police officer on the head for doing his (officer) job of crowd control.

Unfortunately, videos of the incident went viral on social media, followed by severe backlash. Few moments later…

“As I approached the barricade, without any provocation, a uniformed police officer stationed behind the barricade – Constable Forson, a tall, fair, heavily built officer – deliberately struck the left side of my chest with the full force of his right palm, directly near my heart. The impact of the hit dazed me and I was visibly shaken and short of breath.

In that moment, I spontaneously protested his conduct, asking why he would seek to harm me. The Inspector who was facilitating my access, along with other officers, quickly intervened and assisted me into the restricted area, where I had to lean against the wall at the entrance of Parliament House to prevent myself from collapsing.

A national service personnel (sic) from Parliament, whom I know, approached and offered me water. Two CID officers from Parliament also came to check on me and assisted me to a nearby security rest room, where I lay down on a bench to stabilise.

“…What makes this assault particularly egregious is that the officer was being openly reprimanded by his superiors and fellow officers at the time, who cautioned him against his conduct. Yet, he defiantly responded that he didn’t care who I was – Leader or not – and that he would carry out his work regardless.

It was a deliberate, reckless, and targeted attack by an officer who clearly knew my identity and chose to physically assault me in broad daylight, in the full view of his senior colleagues. It is therefore most unfortunate that some individuals would seek to twist the narrative and suggest that I was the aggressor when I was merely protesting the officer’s conduct,” he explained ‘taya’ in a statement issued later in the night.

How someone who was dazed, visibly shaken and short of breath could stretch his hand amid shouts, to knock on the head of a Police officer, begs for an answer illustrated with diagrams.

Meanwhile, the Police authorities say they have their own footage on the incident. The coming days are surely going to be exciting.

 It’s time to go

It beats my imagination why many leaders treat persons they are supposed to lead in achieving results with so much disdain.

That’s because I do not subscribe to using brute force or threats to get workers to work. My view is that it is a sign of leadership failure. Some humans are incorrigible, no doubt. To get them to follow your lead, I believe, is one’s job as the leader. I mean if you are forced to use force, including shouting, beating and knocking on the head, then you don’t have the requisite skills to lead.

That is why a good leader sets rules and regulations for compliance. Non-compliance means indiscipline- punishable by being let go. And in the case of fire officers, being reported to their superiors for negligence, not shouts. In the case of ‘pavement hawkers’ evacuation after agreed deadline, not beating. And of course, not a knock on the head of a Police officer by the Minority Leader of the second arm of Government of the Republic of Ghana.

I guess it is the power that comes with leadership that some people get intoxicated with. But should they? My take is NO. That’s because power, especially political power, is transient, but leadership is a daily skill needed by those who find themselves in positions that require their lead.

Let’s not make it the norm that in Ghana, our leaders shout, threaten to beat and actually knock on the heads of those we are supposed to show the way. It is embarrassing.

By the way, there is a name on my Baptismal Certificate which I have never used- Leopold. I may have to start using it one of these days. I hope you get my drift….

Au Revoir  – That’s goodbye in French.

Let God lead: Follow Him directly, not through any human.

The writer is the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Columnist of the Year- 2022. He is the author of two books whose contents share knowledge on how anyone desirous of writing like him can do so. Eric can be reached via email [email protected]

The post From Eric’s Diary: After we shout, we will beat you and knock on your head- Ghana’s new leadership style first appeared on 3News.

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