Most Ghanaians agree on the importance of leadership and commitment at all levels of the administration, if the aspirations of the people are to be met. It is therefore important that at election time we assess the level of these qualities in those who seek our votes. To do this adequately, we should be clear in our minds what we expect of our leaders. We the people influence their behaviour a great deal. We should find out what we expected of our leaders in the past and what we want them to do now. As the distinguished Prof. Irene Odotei often reminds us, we should interrogate the past. At independence we believed that ministers were working hard when we heard a lot about them in the news. I remember my good friend Krobo Edusei asking me to warn my colleagues in the information sector to expect his wrath, if they continued in their biased ways. "You know Asante", he would say, "they gave me only one minute two seconds on the news while they, gave one whole minute and three seconds to that Minister, who does nothing". So far as the President was concerned, there was a conscious effort to keep him on the front pages and dwell at length on what he did to impress upon the people that he had replaced the British governor. Many will find it difficult to believe it today, but despite the big celebrations and fanfare about independence, it did not fully sink into the inner recesses of the minds of quite a few, that Ghana was really in charge of her destiny and that Kwame Nkrumah was the 'Governor'. I remember a fairly educated person asking me whether the British would allow President Nkrumah to take a certain line of action! And so it was that any meeting the President attended as well as his public functions became headline news in the national papers and was the first item on television news. The practice has not changed much over the years. It had given the impression that trivial protocol duties constitute the major preoccupation of the President. But our Presidents are expected to do much more and in fact they try to do their real work. We should disabuse our minds of the role of our Presidents and not help to saddle them with trivialities. Again an excursion into history may help. Kwame Nkrumah was in the office at 7.30 a.m. in those days when work started that early. His first assignment was a meeting with his officials, i.e. civil servants in Flagstaff House. Matters of state were discussed and the Secretary to the Cabinet, who was also the Head of Civil Service, conveyed the appropriate information and suggestions to Ministers and Principal Secretaries. Ministers would meet the President between 10.00 a.m. and 11.00 a.m. as appropriate. Meanwhile between 8.00a.m. and 9.30 a.m. the President was engaged in his favourite subject, African Affairs. Foreign visitors called between 10.00 and 11.00 a.m. usually on the advice of Ministers who had been briefed by the Principal Secretary (now Chief Director) and so even in those days protocol calls formed only a small part of the President's work. Ambassadors, High Commissioners and other foreign dignitaries called on Ministers and Principal Secretaries and the President was well briefed before such personalities would meet him, if that was necessary. From 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. was devoted to mainly local political matters and the high functionaries of the Convention People's Party (CPP), the governing party, had easy access to the leader. The good news is that the practice has not been completely abandoned. President Kufuor is reported to work hard despite the distractions of unnecessary protocol chores. I have this on the authority of a reliable distinguished young lawyer friend of mine who still works hard for his living after the retiring age because he shunned bribery and corruption. Apart from general observation at close quarters he analysed the President's performance at a closed meeting on legal matters and came to the conclusion that the Leader worked hard, was fully informed and was seized with solutions to current problems. We do not expect anything less from our Presidents and those who aspire to that position should take note. Generally, over the years however, the President does not appear to be so easily accessible to Ministers. Senior Civil Servants seem to find their Ministers inaccessible, let alone meet the President on matters of national interest. The fact that meetings with officials and ministers on important issues, at say Akosombo, are given much publicity in the media and television gives credence to the perception that major national issues are not normally discussed with Ghanaian officials, experts and technical personnel. The other day I had the great honour of a visit by Ghana's distinguished veteran engineer, Dr E. L. Lartey. We discussed the sand and stones, which have occupied half the road in front of my house for about two years. I lamented how some officials appeared quick to award contracts so that they might be given part of the mobilisation money as bribe. The contractor then assembles sand and stone and material required and absconds because his resources are exhausted or funds are not available to continue the work. Dr Lartey then recalled history. When he was in charge of awards, contracts were rightly going to expatriate firms, which satisfied the contract or procurement conditions. President Nkrumah called a meeting of Dr Lartey and his colleagues and asked them to give some contracts to Ghanaians who came third or thereabouts and could manage the assignment. He said if they did not do that, Ghanaians would never develop the necessary expertise. As the banks were unlikely to give credits to Ghanaians without collateral, it was agreed that they would be given "mobilisation money" to enable them to obtain the wherewithal to start the work. Dr Lartey shook his head in lamentation. "They used the mobilisation money in buying cars, high living and marrying second wives," he said. In spite of the disappointment, what was done was in the right direction. In seeking solutions to our problems, our leaders should interact constantly with Ghanaians, especially public officers and civil servants who are paid to assist them and who are the guardians of institutional memory. More important, preoccupation with photo-opportunity functions should be replaced by hard work behind the scenes. It is the result of such work which will give the public a real insight into what leadership demands. The impending food crisis for example can be contained in Ghana by Ghanaians and not primarily by foreign investors or even the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). I remember a woman by the name Cotton who disgraced us all by fooling us that she could grow rice for us and took away thousands of dollars of the taxpayer's money. She gave part of the money to her American church in thanks to God for his assistance in duping us! Meanwhile, she got a good friend of mine into serious trouble. I was therefore taken aback when I came across this story in the Daily Guide of May 2, 2008. The caption was "Lady Rosa Duncan-Williams at Castle". The story followed. "President J. A. Kufuor on Wednesday granted audience to an American business delegation led by Lady Rosa Whitaker, wife of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams of the Christian Action Faith Ministries International. Lady Rosa, a business consultant of international standing, led a textile investment group, 1888 Mills of Chicago, to seek investment opportunities in Ghana". Have we no institution for dealing with investments? If the investor wants a political contact are there no Ministers who deal with Finance, Trade and Industry? We should not cheapen ourselves and the office of the President. We should make it clear to those who seek the leadership of this nation that we are not impressed with colourful trivial protocol engagements. We expect hard work behind the scenes to move the nation forward. On our part we should not troop to the Castle to take much of the President's valuable time for personal or group advertisements and photo opportunities. On his part, the President should allow his officials to save him from such unnecessary intrusions. We have come a long way since independence. We know the President is in charge. We expect him to work round the clock without fanfare to make our nation great and strong. Source: K. B. Asante/Daily Graphic