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A Compatriot who has not made a single news headline for as long as any celebrity tracker in town can remember, suddenly  received a massive overdose of media publicity this week, thanks to fate, circumstance and something else I am still trying to put a finger on.

Media obsession with this individual was so all-consuming you could have sworn the man had invented a plane which flies under the ground and runs on coconut juice for fuel or something.

The naming of 44 year-young deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr Mahamudu Bahumia as the NPP's vice-presidential candidate, sparked off an orgy of publicity for the young genius: His wide ranging accomplishments in academia, banking and finance.

Editors binged on the man's CV, one of the longest if also most impressive many say they have ever seen.

Such was the media obsession with Dr Bawumia that some NPP activists had to remind all and sundry, that the name of the party's presidential candidate was Nana Akufo-Addo and not Dr Bawumia.

Fantastic tickets to big time jobs, exceptional CVs, but great CVs do not good political leaders make, do they, Jomo?

As someone said the other day, political leadership is not about speaking good English, calculating complicated mathematical equations or computing and analyzing quantum statistics.

A clear understanding of these truths explains why most true academics will not touch partisan politic with a hundred-meter pole and prefer to stay virtually trapped behind the ivory tower all their lives.

Those who have ventured out of academia into politics have lived to regret it with a groan and a sigh: Looking around town, Jomo, you may easily cite the cases of Dr This, Dr That  and Dr That-Other-One, who all abandoned their university teaching positions for active politics and eventually came to great grief.

That great intellectuals happened to lead the struggle for our independence and assumed the mantle of national leadership in the immediate post-independence era, has made us so CV-happy when it comes to our choice of leaders.

We have had five civilian elected heads of state since independence and apart from JJ and JAK, the rest have been PhD holders.

By great contrast, the great-grandfather of democracy, the United States, has had 43 presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush and none save Woodrow Wilson, the 28th US president, had a PhD!

Nah, Jomo, great CVs do not good political leaders make, but if there is any consolation on this score, it is probably that the establishment will always do everything possible for as long as possible, to conceal the fact of having unwittingly stuck a square peg in a round hole,  or is it the other way round?

Now, some relevant history: While I was teacher-trainee at the Nalerigu Training College in the late 1960s, the campus drama troupe took a great stage act titled 'The Wicked Uncle” on a highly successful road show in several regions.

The drama portrayed the harsh conditions under which orphans lived in the 1960s.

I played a bloke who befriended a philandering bank manager in the story and helped the manager burn loads of customers' cash on scotch and women.

Whenever we took the show to a town, the community centre was the typical venue for the show. In educational institutions, the school dining hall was usually the venue.  Continued    Source: DAILY GRAPHIC - Daily Graphic

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