Ghana needs a decisive leader who is ready to take unpopular decisions, but which would be in the larger interest of the nation, a former diplomat has said. According to Dr. KB Asante, the leader must be annoyed at the present state of Ghana, be hard working and not sacrifice the tough decisions for political expediency. Dr. Asante made these observations on Front Page, Joy Fm’s news analysis programme on Friday. The programme was geared towards exploring the personality traits of the eight presidential finalists in this year’s December election. Dr. Asante, whose political stint covers the entire governments after independence, noted the past behaviour of the leaders must be explored and well examined. “People don’t change that much, if they had bad behaviours in their school days we ought to take account of that.” “But more importantly we should look at the ideas of the person and whether he can inspire and propel us into the future.” He added. In his definition of the appropriate leader for Ghana, Nana Essilfie Conduah a lecturer at the African University College of Communication, said a father figure, pragmatist, visionary and charismatic leader is all that Ghana needs in order to move forward. He said leaders must be courageous enough to apologise when they make mistakes. Bill Puplampu a psychology lecturer at the University of Ghana observed that one of the problems confronting Ghanaian leaders is their inability to choose the right people for the job. He however noted, appointments must be done in accordance with the trust built over long period of time. “It is fundamental that you have made due diligence and know he set of values they have.” Spokes persons of the various presidential candidates were given the opportunity to unveil the private lives of their candidates. Story by Nathan Gadugah