I live in a Ghana where our country currently cannot boast of 500 megawatts of power. This is a figure the 300 spartans can probably give out after every battle through their kinetic energy alone but my very dear and ‘great’ country Ghana cannot but I quickly remind myself that inside the core of this over 230,000 square meters lies everything we need. The problem? THE FREAKING LEADERS WE CHOOSE.

I had to postpone this piece last week because I did not have electricity for three consecutive days out of the seven. This is minus the ‘normal’ advertised load shedding schedule. Which sensible country is governed this way??

These people don’t seem to know how angry and frustrated some of us are and if you are a Ghanaian and you say I should be used to this by now then you are indeed part of the problem. In leading, vision and integrity is key, our leaders don’t seem to have any of these virtues. If a leader does not possess these qualities, then we might as well vote an ANT as our next President, I can assure you we will get better results.

My heart skipped a beat when I chanced upon this headline on the news agency Reuters’ website: “Madagascar government resigns over blackouts, social woes”.  Yes, Madagascar is an island! I looked around at that time and we had a blackout, clearly the issues they resigned over seemed very familiar to me.

The respect I have for people of integrity goes beyond this earth. I don’t care how much you have in your account, your religion or which woman is warming your bed. I care about the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. I respect my father and mother very much not just because they are my parents, but because even though they may not be a wealthy, they are responsible, people of integrity, who sacrificed and pay their taxes and used their meagre salary to give my siblings and I the best education they could afford.

Bob Marley put it rightly by saying, “The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”

Prime Minister of Madagascar, Roger Kolo said  “We must take account of the interests of the 20 million Malagasy,” he said after President Hery Rajaonarimampianina accepted his resignation. “Some things have been successful, other have not been.” Integrity on this continent is rare, it’s more rare than Red Beryl so when it is identified, it must be applauded.

In Ghana on the other hand, our very wise President John Mahama has been promising since 2012 how much he cares about us and will end this power crisis by the end of each year (we are in 2015 just in case you just arrived from a time travel expedition).

He is still the President, still making promises. Does he have integrity? Please answer for yourself. Three men, had Ghana plunged herself into war should have been on trial at the Hague. Mr.Fiifi Kwetey, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa, Mr. James Agyenim Boateng were on Radio Gold sitting in comfortable foamy chairs yelling to the populace to take hold of anything, clubs, machetes, gallons, anything and march to the Electoral Commission’s Office to strike at opponents. Obviously some idiots responded to the call.

Fast forward to 2015, these men are and were Ministers of State respectively. Mr. President; are there not any other competent, men of integrity you could have appointed? I refuse to refer to those men as honourable- they are not! In Rwanda close to one million people died for equally irresponsible outbursts. The examples are countless, ex-President Kuffuor honouring himself, Dr. Anane refusing to resign after the disgraceful conference shagging incident, ‘Muntaka pampers’ remaining resolute and the late President Mills defending his crime.

The quest for leaders with integrity is no longer an option; it is a necessity because we, People of Ghana are paying too much for the wrong of other people. Even in a seemingly liberal world like America, they expect high standards from their leaders so why can’t a so called conservative nation expect this too?

The complaining must cease, we have to start acting, being more pragmatic, not by organizing useless coup d’etats like Acheampong, Kotoka and Rawlings and their like but we must hold the people we vote into power accountable, ‘holding’ may seem too light a word, we need to demand it! By any legitimate means possible.

PS: There are also individuals who may choose to comment by making this personal. This letter isn’t meant to attack any individual. For those people who were made in a laboratory somewhere in North Korea who cannot see anything else apart from their point of view, the names you see in this piece are purely fictional. If any name you see here bares any semblance of someone you may know, it is merely a coincidence—of course I am lying about the names being fictional…