WE NEED SERVANT LEADERS

THE campuses of our various tertiary institutions have nurtured a number of the country's leaders. As beneficiaries of the services of such centres of teaching and learning, most of our leaders have used the opportunity offered by higher education to launch themselves into national politics.
The academic freedom enjoyed in the tertiary institutions helped a number of them to develop their potential and skills in leadership. The list of student leaders who found themselves in public office is inexhaustive.
However, some of them are not good examples of role models for our youth, although they hold high public offices today.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, urges students who aspire to leadership positions on our campuses and at the national level to reflect seriously on the admonition by the Pro Vice-chancellor of the University for Development Studies, Professor David Millar, to students not to seek those positions with the intent of diverting students funds.
He said the situation where some national leaders used their offices for personal gain could partly be attributed to attitudes nurtured in their youthful days, particularly those who were student leaders (see pages 24 & 25 for story).
The Scriptures implore us to train the child the way we want him or her to go, so that when he or she grows up he or she will not depart from it. This, in essence, requires that parents and teachers give the necessary training to those who pass through their hands during their formative years so that they imbibe positive character traits that will guide them throughout their lives.
Leadership is not only an honour; it is a heavy responsibility entrusted to those appointed or elected to serve in that capacity and so to make any positive impact, leaders must serve, rather than lord it over their people. Those who want to lead must always listen to the voice of the people.
The DAILY GRAPHIC reminds those seeking leadership at whatever level, particularly politicians seeking our mandate on December 7, 2008, to always remember what Dr J. B. Danquah said in 1947, that “the aim of Ghanaian nationalism was to institute a system of government where those who are in control of government are under the control of those who are governed”.
Reports abound of various degrees of malfeasance among the leadership of the student body on our campuses, while those same leaders shout on rooftops demanding accountability from our national leaders.
Some student leaders are tin gods running one-man shows. They detest everybody’s opinion on any matter and are not accountable to anybody.
Charity, they say, begins at home and, therefore, student leaders who have ambitions beyond the campuses must use the opportunity offered them at the tertiary institutions to serve their apprenticeships well and be good examples of the type of leaders the country needs to move forward.
Students in our tertiary institutions have major contributions to make in our development process. The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, calls on them to live what they preach on the campuses and avoid the double standards that some of them showcase there.
Those who seek to lead must submit to the wishes of those who put them there, for the mark of a good leader is how well he or she listens to and does the will of those who put him or her in office.