News:
September 16, 2013
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Benjamin Kumbour has stated that the biggest problem facing Ghana is the lack of ‘thinking people’ in political leadership. According to him, Ghana’s economy is affected by the lack of initiative from people appointed into political leadership positions.
‘’In this country we spend so much time paying people to talk; we don’t pay people to think, this is what is the problem of this country.’’
‘’All the matured democracies and industrialised countries you’ve seen, they have always found time to pay people to think and not just to talk,’’ said Dr. Kumbuor in an interview with Citi FM’s Richard Dela Sky.
According to the Member of Parliament for Nandom, a neighbouring country like Burkina Faso is getting it right with investment in agriculture than Ghana is, ‘’because people are thinking about the future of Burkina; people are thinking and interpreting their environment and finding answers to the challenges of their environment.’’
But the contrary he said, is happening in Ghana because “we just do not want to perfect our institutions and structures to reflect changing demands”
Dr. Kumbour said the people of Burkina Faso do not spend time shouting about their achievements but rather are engaged in finding solutions to their problems and that the evidence is there for all to see.
He warned that if Ghana’s political leadership do not have a change in attitude towards problem solving, then “every problem that is known and has been solved in some country will always come to us as a new problem.”
The Majority leader also expressed worry over the situation in Ghana where people who insult are the most glorified. ‘’… Who do we glorify; those who can each other on the radio in the morning, those who can publish a lot of things that destroys people’s lives forever; those are the ones who are the champions in Ghana.’’
Dr. Kumbour said the media could not be blamed for the kind of stories in circulation.
‘’It is not the media; we [politicians] send the stories to them and so if they decide to embellish it according to their editorial policy, you can’t blame them…,’’ he stated.
He urged politicians to devote time to dealing with issues that impact the lives of Ghanaians positively.‘’Let us get our priorities right; let us [Politicians and Leaders] put and devote our time to the core issues,’’ he added.
Citifmonline.com