Traditional leader says leadership in Africa needs to be aggressive

Togbega Gabusu VI, Paramount Chief of Gbi Traditional Area on Saturday urged the leadership in Africa to be aggressive and find innovative strategies that would create the needed latitude for the advancement of all especially the youth.

He said “It looks like issues of youth development and advancement as well as economic fortunes of the continent is on auto-pilot” urging leadership to take full charge to guarantee the future marketability of Africa.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on his 24th Anniversary as Traditional ruler, which coincided with the African Union Day, Togbega Gabusu said leadership should avoid parochial tendencies and knee-jerk response to solving the continent’s problems and remain proactive.

He said as the AU marks its golden jubilee anniversary, continental strides and achievements are unimpressive with the teeming youth wallowing in disillusionment and lacking proper direction.

Togbega Gabusu observed that the yawning gap between political independence and emancipation on one hand and the economic servitude and dependency on the other needed to be closed.

“There ought to be a direct relationship between political independence and economic emancipation, for socio-economic advancement,” he said.

The Paramount Chief said leadership was under-utilising the human and material resources of Africa, with the colonial masters firmly clutching onto the resources, an affront to charting an accelerated development campaign.

“We need to re-assemble human and material resources to ward-off disease, hunger, illiteracy, poverty, under-development and squalor that were wreaking havoc across the continent.”

He said five decades is enough timeline to make a difference and “if the horizon is still far away from us, only God will help us come out of our collective predicaments.”

Togbega said 50 years was enough to have integrated the regional blocs into a solitary union, insisting that, integration was now than the gradualists’ position.

Togbega Gabusu said leadership should look within for solutions to Africa’s problems, asking, “Who seeks solution to domestic problems from the neighbourhood.”

He urged the AU and its leadership to be assertive and strengthen institutional structures, including governance, rule of law and democracy, to set the right pace for the continent’s political and socio-economic development.

“The time to provide direction and leadership is now. The inhabitants need the right impetus to aspire to greater heights.”

Togbega urged citizens of the continent to demand accountability and transparency from leadership at all times and called for re-dedication and commitment from all towards

Source: GNA