Ghanaian hip-hop recording artist Michael Owusu Addo, better known by his stage name Sarkodie, has criticized the country’s leadership for lacking focus, resolve, and perseverance.
He contends that there are many brilliant people in Ghana who have individually demonstrated how to create something from nothing with few resources and sustain it for an extended length of time; as a result, such people should have more power.
Sarkodie responded to a video explaining why Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, was removed from office with these remarks.
The said video captured thoughts shared in Nkrumah’s book, ‘Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of imperialism’, published in 1965 which among others, espoused that “the result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and the poor countries of the world…”
“Neo-colonialism is based upon the principle of breaking up former large united colonial territories into a number of small non-viable States which are incapable of independent development and must rely upon the former imperial power for defence and even internal security. Their economic and financial systems are linked, as in colonial days, with those of the former colonial ruler.”
Sarkodie lauded Nkrumah for his selflessness in a comment on the video and urged contemporary leaders to emulate him.
“Traditional politicians are trained not to create anything but only to achieve their political goals (only to gain power). It’s high time we looked into the backgrounds of those in positions of authority. It is impossible to ignore the importance of resilience, commitment, and discipline in a leader.