Former Auditor-General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, has outlined six leadership values he says are key to transforming the nation if possessed by the country’s politicians.

The values which form the acronym FATHER, he said, will ensure fair, accountable and transformational leadership to drive the country towards a better future.

The acronym which stands for Fairness, Accountability, Transformational, Honesty, Equity and Respect he said are missing in Ghana’s current crop of leaders and thus urged Ghanaians to look out for those attributes when choosing leaders.

Explaining the acronym on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, on Thursday, he said;

“A leader must be fair. You must ensure that things are done, or awards are given, opportunities are granted based on merit.

“The A stands for accountability. As a leader, you must hold yourself accountable and hold your followers accountable. What do we see in our side of the world? Is that we do not accept responsibility when things go wrong. We blame others, in fact we even blame the weather, we blame things happening outside our jurisdiction.”

According to him, Ghanaian leaders must be bold enough to accept their failings, show remorse, and announce steps to address said failings instead of pushing blame.

The T he said stands for Transformational.

He explained that “a leader must be a transformational person. If people can see their future in you, that is when they follow you, that is when they trust you, that is when they believe in you, so you can do a lot of things mobilizing the people. But if you look visionless, people cannot see you as an answer to their future then they’re not going to be there for you.”

He urged leaders to be honest.

According to him, the modus operandi of Ghanaian politicians is to use statistical figures to paint rosy pictures even when the prevailing situation suggests otherwise.

“Some lie with statistics as if it is their sole preserve so they tell you ‘erh look the inflation moved by this percentage, we’re the best managers of the economy as if the thing is not hurting us, they don’t even feel what we’re talking about.

“When people say they cannot afford food on their table they tell you that no, someone increased the rate by 10% I brought it to 8% so clap for me. Negative benchmarking. 

“So when things are not going right, it is good for a good leader to acknowledge that here I failed, here I was not successful but we are doing ABCD to correct it,” he said.

“Then the E in the father stands for equity. There must be relative equity or equality such that everybody gets his share, not that because I belong to a particular group or I don’t belong to a particular group I do not get it. So that relative fairness or equity must be there,” he added.

For Mr. Domelevo, the R in FATHER is the most important.

According to him, leaders must show respect to their followers, opposition and dissenters on issues and must work to promote inclusive decision-making.

“We are not born to think the same way, we are human beings we all have our lines of thinking and given the exposure that we have had in life and the values we have you may think differently of a situation than myself,” he said.

He said leaders with these admirable values are most likely to positively transform the nation.

“So if we don’t have leaders with this type of value, but we have leaders who think that it is their turn… we’re not going to make progress,” he warned.