Editorial: A Feather In Our Cap

Some leaders leave no footprints in the sands of time. Others however do, and long after they have bowed out of the high office of President, dividends of their lofty policies which consistently provide sustenance for their people, are recognized outside the borders of their countries.

Two presidents, our own former President John Agyekum Kufuor and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, now in retirement, have been justifiably recognized by the renowned World Food Prize Foundation for policies they initiated to lift their people out of poverty.

Juxtaposed against the nauseating politics of insults by political minors, the recognition points at just how such characters have got it all wrong, as they undertake their futile enterprise which cannot change the course of history.

It is worth recalling the Ghana President Kufuor inherited at the time he assumed the mantle of leadership of the country.

A country whose economy was in a wretched state in 2001 posed many challenges to the newly-elected President than he had envisaged; yet he persevered even in the face of deliberate machinations to draw him back and derail his set goals.

He was able to reduce the 1991 poverty rate of 51.7 percent to 26.5 percent in 2008 through prioritized national agricultural policies- a fact referred to by the World Food Prize Foundation.

Even the resort to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) option- our best bet at the time- was subjected to the usual condemnation by politically mischievous characters hungry for power.

Today, dividends from the painful but rewarding option are still trickling in and blessing the people of this country in diverse ways long after the man credited for the progress had left office.

Even the mass spraying of cocoa farms was transformed into a political subject fired at consistently by the NDC.

When harvest time was due, Ghana earmarked an unprecedented haul of the cash crop, changing the fortunes of cocoa farmers. The enhanced agricultural production in the country today is the result of the good policies of the Kufuor tenure.

His public and private sector initiatives and the resultant positive results endeared him to the award committee as noted in the citation accompanying the award announcement.

When we came close to having our former President grab the Mo Ibrahim Award, the possibility dashed even after a short-listing of his name for the prestigious honour, the aftermath of political interference in the process. No award was given for that particular year by the award committee, an appropriate response to the pestering interference over why someone should not be considered.

A perhaps more prestigious award has come his way, with no chance for mischief-makers to undermine the process.

It takes outstanding leadership qualities to attract such an outstanding award and we are proud to note that former President Kufuor’s feat adds a feather in our national cap.

Congrats Old Boy and more grease to your elbows.

Source: Daily Guide