Story by, Paul Mensah Nsor
Ghana’s development challenges stem from a “leadership crisis,” not a lack of resources, Mr. Alex Nartey Esq., founder of the Institute of Paralegal Training & Leadership Studies (IPLS), said at the opening of a three-day seminar on _Leading with Integrity, Influence & Impact: Redefining Governance Excellence for a New Era_.
Speaking at the start of IPLS’s Intensive Mediation Practice Workshop, Nartey told participants that “the right leadership is the antidote to everything.” The free training, he said, targets moral consciousness because “leadership is everything — from the nuclear family up to the national level.”
Nartey argued that natural resources alone do not guarantee development. “Your nation can be located on land that bears no fruit, and as we can see, some countries on desert are developed, while those of us in green forest areas like Ghana go there to see development and comfort,” he said. “When we are comparatively better than them, it suggests to you that it’s about leadership.”
He stressed that leadership must be “guided… premised upon certain principles, and these principles are ethics and integrity.” Without them, he warned, “you may have all the resources, you may be given all the resources, but you put it to waste.”
Nartey criticized what he called Ghana’s fixation on oratory over substance in politics. “Today in our politics we pride ourselves with speaking good English… Once he speaks the way the Ghanaian expects him to speak, he qualifies, and we don’t care whether he’s conveying implementable ideas or not.”
He cited global examples: “If it’s about English, China would have not been what it is today. If it’s about English, Japan will not be producing cars for us. We’ve gotten to a point where we must all come back and think.”
Nartey said IPLS believes “leadership training among non-lawyers is a panacea to some of the policy crises that we have,” because “one does not need to be a lawyer to have a fair appreciation of the laws that affect his or her operations.”
The three-day workshop brought together about 150 Ghanaians committed to national growth. Although costly to organize, Nartey said IPLS made it free because “it’s so urgent, it’s so necessary that people must not struggle to be part of it.” The Institute plans to run the program twice yearly, with the next edition scheduled for December.
Nartey concluded that Ghana “has a very long way to go” because “when you listen to the average Ghanaian politician… you can say that we have leadership deficit, serious one.” The workshop, he said, aims to “establish moral consciousness among some Ghanaians whose involvement in what we do as a nation will be of so much help.”
