A retired Diplomat and Statesman, K.B Asante has described Ghana’s second president in the fourth Republic, John Agyekum Kufuor’s leadership style as one that lacked passion.
K.B. Asante said, though Kufuor stood for a good course, he lacked the fire his predecessors like Nkrumah and Rawlings wielded.
“Kufuor was what I will call a normal head of state. In the Western world, he would be a good man. He was a gentleman and tried to get his people together to work for the good of Ghana but it lacked the fire, the enthusiasm of Nkrumah, Rawlings and the others,” said the retired diplomat.
K.B. Asante, who is 91 and has lived under all the presidents who have governed the nation since Kwame Nkrumah made the assertion on Thursday while speaking on Time with the Legends segment on the Citi Breakfast Show.
He took time to assess Ghana’s past heads of state and their performance over years.
According to K.B. Asante former President Kufuor aligned with the US and European countries with the hope of courting their support for Ghana’s development.
To him [K.B Asante], though he does not support such ideologies, Kufuor was partly successful in this line.
He said, “I think he [Kufuor] leaned more on the international community like the Americans and the Europeans. He felt that in developing Ghana, we could move faster if we got them on our side. They are many people who believe that but I don’t. I don’t think that if you want to get on, you should always fear the Greeks even if they bring you gold before you ask what is it that they want. I think you should put your own agenda first and ask how far.”
“He [Kufuor] believed in the international community, in the motive of helping us to be on our feet,” the former diplomat added.
Wrong International dimension
K.B. Asante observed that Kufuor “…had many good schemes to get a country on its feet and he succeeded more or less in some and some he didn’t. But I don’t think he got the international dimension of development correct…the little I know about diplomacy is that, they [foreign countries] are there to promote their national interest.”
Mills was a good man
On late President John Mills, K.B. Asante described him “as a good man.”
“I didn’t have much to do with him. I presented petitions to him and things like that. I was then the president of Ga-Adangme and I met him on some occasions to relate the problem, he understood them well. That was the closest I met with him. He was moderately effective,” he added.
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