The Chronicle observed President John Dramani Mahama’s address at the West Africa Security Association (WASSA) forum at Burma Camp with mixed feelings. The commissioning of new military vehicles, the announcement of a 2,000-unit housing project for the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and plans to procure armoured personnel carriers, drones, advanced communication systems and establish a Cyber and Electronic Warfare Centre at the Tamale Air Force Base, all projected a government mindful of national security imperatives.
However, beyond the impressive optics,The Chronicle finds that a disturbing lapse in leadership was on full display.Standing before disciplined officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Mahama chose not to command but to complain. He publicly lamented that more than GH¢1 billion gratuity arrears under Constitutional Instrument (CI) 129 and laid blame squarely at the doorstep of the previous administration for failing to make budgetary provision for its operationalisation.
The Chronicle finds this posture unacceptable.A Commander-in-Chief does not lament before troops. He commands. He resolves. He assumes responsibility. Complaining in a military setting weakens authority, erodes morale and undermines the ethics of command. Burma Camp is not a political platform and the Ghana Armed Forces is not a partisan audience.
Yes, the arrears may have been inherited. Yes, the figures may be accurate. But leadership is not a public exercise in blame-sharing. The Chronicle maintains that responsibility begins where mandate starts.
The Chronicle is aware that the President later directed the Minister of Finance to release funds to address the gratuity arrears. That directive, rather than redeeming the moment, deepens the concern. If remedial action was within immediate reach, then the public lamentation before soldiers was unnecessary. Leadership acts first and explains later. Complaint before command inverts the moral order of authority.
Even more troubling is the contradiction between the President’s conduct and his own repeated sermons on ethical leadership. Only recently, President Mahama charged public officials to lead by example, demonstrate accountability and uphold integrity. Yet, when faced with an opportunity to embody those virtues, he chose lamentation over leadership.
The Chronicle cannot ignore this inconsistency.Ghana’s governance culture is increasingly polluted by a politics of excuses. Every challenge is inherited. Every failure is explained away. The Chronicle finds this trend corrosive, unpatriotic and dangerous to democratic accountability.
Ghanaians did not vote for explanations; they voted for solutions. They did not hand the National Democratic Congress (NDC) a decisive mandate for a recital of past failures. Public office exists to correct problems, not to narrate them.
Leadership, as former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana and Vice-Chancellor of Christian Service University College, Prof. Emmanuel Kwaku Asante, aptly observed, is not conferred by office alone. “Being an office bearer does not make one a leader.”
Similarly, the late Rev. Prof. Kwame Bediako warned against the dangerous confusion of office-holding with leadership. Office is constitutional; leadership is moral. Authority can be assigned; character must be demonstrated.
We acknowledge the economic gains recorded under President Mahama’s administration. However, the burden of leadership requires responsibility, not nagging.
If President Mahama desires to be remembered as one of Ghana’s great leaders, The Chronicle believes he must abandon the politics of lamentation. Great leaders absorb responsibility; they do not export blame.
As a professed Christian and member of the Assemblies of God, the President is expected to model servant leadership marked by humility, decisiveness and accountability. Complaining from the highest office in the land does not meet that standard.
The Chronicle, therefore, urges the President to align his rhetoric on ethical leadership with his conduct. The tone set by the Commander-in-Chief cascades through every institution of state.
Ghana needs leadership not lamentation. Command not complaint.History will judge posture, not speeches.
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The post Editorial: When The Commander-In-Chief Complains appeared first on The Ghanaian Chronicle.
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