John Mahama’s “sakawa” comment was unacceptable

The kind of leadership that Ghana deserves is level 5. Level 5 leaders, according to James C Collins’s book Good to Great, display a powerful mixture of personal humility and indomitable will.

They are hugely ambitious but their ambition is first and foremost for the cause, for the organisation they lead, their country and its purpose, not themselves. As Harry S Truman said, “You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.”

A level 5 leader is a disciplined person, disciplined in thought and disciplined in action.

Ghana, now in her 64th year going into her 65th, and looking forward to her 70th starting in 2026, deserves robust governance of the kind that is accredited to level 5 leaders. Such leadership asks questions of this nature: first who … then what, confronting the brutal facts. Level 5 leadership is hedgehog in concept and culturally disciplined, respecting ethnic perspectives and balance. A level 5 leader acts as a technology accelerator.

John C Maxwell describes a level 5 leader as one who reaches the pinnacle. He explains it as the highest level of leadership and also the most challenging to attain. It requires longevity as well as intentionality.

Eyes on the heights

You simply cannot reach Level 5 unless you are willing to invest your life into the lives of others for the long haul. But if you stick with it, if you continually focus on both growing yourself at every level, and developing leaders who are willing and able to develop other leaders, you may find yourself at the Pinnacle.

The commitment to becoming a Pinnacle leader is sizeable, but so are the payoffs. Level 5 leaders develop Level 5 countries. They create opportunities other leaders don’t. They create a legacy in what they do. People follow them because of who they are and what they represent. In other words, their leadership gains a positive reputation. As a result, Level 5 leaders often transcend their position, their country, and sometimes their industry or organisation.

There’s so much more I would love to tell you, but let me leave it at this. Leadership is about growth – for yourself, your relationships, your productivity and your people. To lead well, you must embrace your need for continual improvement, and the five levels provide a leadership GPS to help you on your journey. To know where you’re going, you must know where you are.

Otherwise, as the Cheshire Cat told Alice, when you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.

Ghana has more than 70 ethnic groups. The main groups include the Akan, at 47.5% of the population, the Mole-Dagbon (16.6%), the Ewe (13.9%), the Ga-Dangme (7.4%), the Gurma (5.7%), the Guan (3.7%), the Gurunsi (2.5%), the Kusaasi (1.2%) and the Bikpakpaam, also known as the Konkomba people, at 3.5%.

These 70-plus ethnic groups are what makes Ghana Ghana. This is our identity and this identity has not divided us since independence. Ghana has a minimal record of national chaos caused by ethnic divisions, and relatively few ethnic battles.

Ghanaians generally adhere to the principle that all of us, regardless of ethnicity, are united under a system similar to the East African ubuntu. The concept of ubuntu is encapsulated in the image of the traditional broom, made of hundreds of small sticks. The many sticks, easily breakable and bendable on their own, come together as one big, strong broom, which we can all use to sweep our country.

Choose your foundation

“Sakawa” is a Ghanaian expression for illegal practices which combine modern, internet-based fraud with African traditionalist rituals. These rituals, which are mostly in the form of sacrifices, are intended to manipulate victims spiritually so that the scammer’s fraud becomes successful.

The leadership of Kandifo Institute is taken aback by the comment about “sakawa” recently made by the National Democratic Congress candidate for the 2020 presidential election, John Dramani Mahama. It was an intervention in bad taste to the entire democratic polity.

No citizen or ethnic group in this country should be described in the manner that Mr Mahama, a candidate seeking votes from the citizens of Ghana, described the good people of Akyem Abuakwa. Anyone who understands leadership at the highest level should realise that the descriptor “sakawa” is not one that should be used of any ethnic group, in this country or any other.

One might well ask: have we reduced our politics to playing on ethnic sentiment? Have we lowered the bar that low, and moved from what should be a national conversation about issues to wading in tribally bigoted slurs? Are we endorsing acts of “sakawa”, a phenomenon that has swallowed up some of our young people in Ghana? Is “sakawa” now an expression that should be accommodated by leaders who have represented Ghana at the highest level in years past?

Is our leaders’ awareness of “sakawa” something that should be encouraged? Or should we not erase it from the vocabulary of national leaders?

The 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, destroyed many properties and brought the economy of Rwanda, organised along tribal lines, to a standstill.

As a leadership think tank, the Kandifo Institute expects Mr Mahama to desist from playing with ethnic sentiment if he wishes to be at the pinnacle of leadership in this country. It would not be a good foundation for the people of Ghana.

Leadership of service

Rwanda has transcended ethnicity and recovered from its genocide, and is now sub-Saharan Africa’s shining example of a modern, diversified economy. Ghana is not ready to descend into tribal warfare and we should not have our language seasoned to welcome such. The people of Akyem Abuakwa and all other ethnic groups in Ghana reject Mr Mahama’s statement.

It is interesting to note that one of the best-known members of the ethnic group that Mr Mahama described in such an unpleasant way was Nana Sir Ofori Atta I (1881-1943). Nana Ofori Atta I was not only the Okyenhene (paramount chief of Akyem Abuakwa Traditional Area), but also a nationalist, an educator, the second African member of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly and a founding member of Achimota School in 1927.

In the late 1920s, his kingdom, Okyeman, was one of the largest and wealthiest anywhere in the then Gold Coast Colony, now southern Ghana. Nana Ofori Atta I became one of the star politicians of the Gold Coast and was knighted by King George V.

Leadership is about service and service is about people. Let us build Ghana and break through to full development.

Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, executive director, Kandifo Institute

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