After fifty-six (56) - years of experience, dominance and influence in the Eastern and the Central Africa they could have been apt in research and saved themselves from such a colossal embarrassment with their current ranking of top-ten African leaders published this month. Indeed it has not only deepened the research inaccuracies in the sub-region but also done some piecing through their scintilla of reputation. The ranking of a President of Ghana (John Dramani Mahama) among the top-ten leaders in Africa with a grade B by the Nation Media Group should have necessarily be good news at least from the fact that I am a Ghanaian. But dispassionate and intellectual analysis of the situation in relation to the data and the methodology upon, my own cursory analysis, raged me on in search of the devil which is almost always in detail. It is worthy of note that the Programs Officer at Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Edward Fokuo Ampratwum had issues of double counting and the data focusing on the country other than the personality hence a research doubt. It is again very imperative to state that the focus of the research (African Leadership index) is a tool for Governance-tracking of African leaders in the continent for the year 2012. We are again not told in the report, whether the contributory mark of the President of Ghana was inclusive to that of his former Boss, the late John Evans Atta-Mills. If it was ignored, it makes the margin of errors of the research comparative to President John Mahama’s compatriot very big and problematic. The report apart from screening a grade also boldly stated in each the successes and failure of the leaders for the year. This was central and pivotal to the overall 35% of marks which is determined by the group. The report stated the success of the President of Ghana as, “John Dramani Mahama was declared the winner of the December election 2012 with 50.07 percent of the vote, against opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo with 47.74 percent”. Failure of John Dramani Mahama and this is what the report had to say, “Ghana’s opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) contested the election results. Saying that it has concrete evidence that its candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, won the elections.It is also alleged systematic stealing of votes at the collation level. The case is still in court and may take several years to conclude’’. Indeed and Infact, the Success of John Dramani Mahama in Governance cannot be winning the 2012 elections and its failures talking about the NPP and the 2012 Petition at the Supreme Court. It is very intriguing and more than an institutional failure for a media and research institution of such a caliber to have mis-clicked their search engine in relation to the successes or failure of Ghana from the Governance perspective. This record comparable to that of Seychelles, Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya makes that of Ghana a window dressing. The report gives a grade D to the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his failure in 2012 has this and I quote, “2012 was embarrassing year for Museveni Government. A scandal where $18.8 million worth of donor aid was stolen from the Office of the Prime Minster dominated the headlines’’. I guess the Government of Ghana did not experience such an unlicensed phenomenon of create, loot and share conundrum of a headline’’. The President of Kenya had D as a mark but with this as his success, concerted effort to clean up the Kenya Judiciary through the vetting by the Judges and Magistrate vetting board with a failure being Internal Security remained vulnerable in 2012 in most part due to sporadic terror attacks. President James Alix Michel had a grade B and the failure in Governance in the year 2012 was Piracy. From the above, one cannot sail through but to detect that in almost all, the Success and failure in Governance was spot-on and specific to a definite area in Governance other than winning elections. It is again interesting to note that over 20 of the 52 among the ranked Nations went for elections and a lot of them were re-elected. But nowhere in the report was it stated as a Success in the year. Ghana had the worst kind of a performance ever when it comes to Corruption at least from the Corruption perception index 2011 released in 2012. If what dominated the headlines of major newspapers and our radio and TV network was used as a basis, then the corruption index from the angle of Nation Media Group should have been plummeted with a mark. Ghana had a tainted democratic credential in 2012 as far as Press freedom was concern. The BBC described the ban of Multimedia Group of Ghana by Government as barbaric and an Achilles heel in recent democratic credentials. For the Government of Ghana through a Press release to have described a journalist from Multimedia as a gate-crasher was not only mind-boggling but an ancient-gratifying decision. With regards to the Mo Ibrahim index, Ghana did not improve as it remained in the 7th position out of the 52 countries ranked in Africa, scoring the same mark of 66 out of 100 in both years. As to the growth of our Democracy in relation to Good Governance and Accountability in 2012, the least said about it the better. It therefore becomes puzzling the way and manner the President of the Republic was able to make it to the top-ten in Africa. Between the Human development index (HDI) and that of the Nation Media Group Political index (NMGPI) is 55%. The criteria used for the HDI is of a public knowledge but that of the NMGPI remains the prerogative of the group. Indeed and in fact if President John Dramani Mahama is to be questioned whether he deserves to be in the top-10 in the year 2012 alone in terms of Governance, the answer would have been much more than obvious. Bright Acheampong, AFAG Deputy General Secretary