Lack Of Succession Planning In The Ghanaian Society And Its Associated Problems

It is said that a leader is considered a failure if that leader looks back in his or her organization at the time of his or her exiting and doesn’t see somebody who is efficient enough to continue the process he started. In other words, a leader should be able to get someone who will in practical and efficient ways be in a position to continue the position he occupies over a long term. To achieve this, there should be a proper succession planning and grooming with the establishment, something that is lacking in our society. Looking at the Ghanaian society as a whole, lack of succession planning has been the bane of our society and the associated problems are seen in every fabric of our society. From Chieftaincy to business, religion and even in politics, most of the leadership confusion that we see around us stems from this lack of proper succession planning. This article looks at the problems of lack of proper succession planning in the areas of Chieftaincy, business, religion and politics.

The many Chieftaincy disputes that we see around us have their roots in the fact that there is no proper succession plan as to who inherit the stool or skin. We have situations where people who are not royals or is not their turn to become Chiefs try to occupy stools and skins and hence the many prolonged chieftaincy disputes in the country. Article 272 (b) of the 1992 constitution mandates the National House of Chiefs to “undertake the progressive study, interpretation and codification of customary law with a view to evolving , in appropriate cases, a unified system of rules of customary law, and compiling the customary laws and lines of succession applicable to each stool or skin”. After over thirty years of the coming into force of the constitution, I wonder what has been done with this provision. Have we sat down as a society to look at why in the sixties, there were less chieftaincy disputes with respect to who occupies the throne as compared to our present day where upon the death of almost every Chief, there is a fight as to who succeeds that Chief? In the olden days where there were few chiefs who were educated, there were processes, though not written, as to how succession to a stool or skin is done. If a child is born into the royal family and the family knew that one day he will be the chief, they started to groom him in every aspect of his life. They will teach him how to dress, the customs and customary life of that society, public speaking and even the type of life that he should live. In that case by the time he is to ascend to the throne, everyone in the community will know that it was his turn to ascend the throne and he will be accepted by the community. In a similar vein, sometimes when the incumbent chief is getting old or is incapacitated, he will nominate his successor to “sit on his lap” to rule in his stead and the said chief will just be at the background guiding the acting Chief. On the death of the Chief, there is a smooth transition and there is no confusion. These days with all of our education and technology, there is no written succession plan and upon the death of a chief, people come from all corners of the community trying to occupy the throne. These days where education and wealth are gradually becoming a requirement that people use to occupy the throne or the skin, coupled with the absence of proper succession plan, there is always confusion when it comes to who ascends the throne or the skin. The National Commission for Civic Education and the National House of Chiefs should come together to force all traditional authorities to have a written succession plan that will be acceptable by all the gates to the throne, thus preventing the numerous confusion as to who succeeds a demised Chief.

Another area in the Ghanaian society where lack of proper succession plan has led to the collapse of those organizations is the Church. Many churches cease to exist after the death of its founder. The main reason for this unfortunate situation is lack of proper succession planning within the church. The problem is more serious in situations where the church is organized around the personality of the leader or the founder. Everything in the church revolves around the founder. In such situations, the founder is the only one who preaches every Sunday even though there may be associate pastors. One can see a church setting where the Pastor is the accountant, chorus leader and virtually does everything. I once visited a Church that has three services every Sunday and the Pastor was proud to say that he was tired because he has preached at all the three services despite the fact that he has about three associate Pastors. These Pastors have not learnt what Jethro told Moses in Exodus 18 about delegating responsibilities to other leaders. In the 80’s, the Bethel Prayer Ministry which was led by Apostle Owusu Tabiri was a church with a lot of membership and branches both in Ghana and overseas. After the death of the founder, because there was no proper succession plan, lack of proper strategic grooming of leaders and the absence of a built in structures in the church, there was no proper transition in leadership. Today, one can count the number of branches of the church that are still functioning. I don’t pray for it, but if care is not taken, the Resurrection Power New Generation Church after the demise of its founder will also face similar problem. Reverend Boakye was the sole preacher every Sunday and the whole church was revolving around his personality. There was no proper succession plan in the church. That was the reason why there was confusion when the wife wanted to take over the church when the husband was incapacitated. This should be a wakeup call to all those pastors whose churches have been operated around their personalities and not on a laid down systems and structures where if even the leader is not there, the church can still function. Insecurity and lack of trust, they say, have been the main reasons why these pastors try to do everything by themselves. All the so-called charismatic churches where the founder is the only person who literary does everything and the organization of the church is revolved around that “Papa” face that problem and their churches will die with them. In this era where hero worshipping is the order of the day in most churches, without proper succession planning coupled with a strategic grooming of leadership, most churches will die with their leaders. A proper grooming and good succession planning is needed so that when the founder is there or not, the church can still function. Succession planning and proper grooming of Pastors should be in the DNA of the church such that Senior Pastors existing the scene will not be looking over their shoulders to see whether whoever takes over from them is moving the Church above where they left it. Junior Pastors should be made to hold some preaching and administrative responsibilities such that the congregation will accept them as their leaders and eventually can take over the leadership when the founder is not there. The Church should not be organized around one person. There should be systems and structures within the church such that if even the founder is not there, the church will still function. All these call for a proper strategic succession planning and grooming of leaders within the church, leaders that will be well prepared to take over anytime there is a leadership vacuum in the church.

When one comes to the Western world, one can see many family businesses that are over hundred years and they are still active and functioning. Many generations within the family have occupied leadership positions in the business and the business is still moving on. Looking within the Ghanaian society, many businesses die with the death of the founder. When I was growing up, there were big business names like the FDNT timbers in Kumasi, Opoku Transport Company also in Kumasi, YF transportation and many more. In my hometown of Sunyani, names like SY Barnie and Sons, DT Nkrumah and Sons and others were household names and their businesses were envy of everybody. Now, what do we see? If you mention those names today, not many people can even remember them. Those businesses died with the owners or founders. What led to this situation where after the death of the owner or founder of the business, those businesses cease to exist? The only reason attributed to this unfortunate situation is that, there was no proper succession planning in place when these leaders were living, neither were people groomed to take over leadership roles. The owner was the accountant, the human resource manager, the production manager and everything about the business was about him. He made business decisions alone without recourse to the future of the business. Business owners put in a lot of effort in growing their business and they must be concerned about what happens when they decide to step aside. In the Western world, when it comes to family business, the owner makes sure that his children are trained to take over the business, they are groomed such that when the founder exists the company, there is a smooth transition to leadership positions. At a point, the management of the business falls to the children and the old man goes behind the scene and supervises the children. In the case of businesses in Ghana, sometimes the children of the owner don’t even want to go to school let alone take over the running of the business. Even those children who express interest in the business are even not given the chance to manage it while the founder is alive. Transition plans are very critical to the future of any business. One sad thing in our society concerning succession planning when it comes to business is that, these children of the business owners are in most cases not interested in their family business. The owners on their part do not put any plans in place that will train others that will take over in their absence. In the advanced countries, business owners making their exist can find comfort in seeing their life’s work being handed over to capable hands but such is not the situation as far as many businesses in Ghana are concerned. That notwithstanding, we have some few Ghanaian businesses that are thriving because proper succession planning and proper grooming strategies have been put in place.

Another area in the Ghanaian society where lack of succession planning or grooming of leaders has brought chaos and confusion is our body politics. Whether it is insecurity or selfish nature of our leaders, our political leaders have not been able to groom leaders such that when they exist the scene, there is smooth transition of power. Anytime a political leader in Ghana finished serving his mandated term of office, there is confusion and sometimes bitter and unhealthy competition to get someone to succeed that leader. Under normal circumstances, a good leader should immediately after his swearing in, know that one day he will not be on the scene and will from that point on look for somebody to groom so that when he is not there, that person will assume the leadership role and will be accepted by all. Even Vice Presidents do not automatically assume the leadership role when the term of their Presidents comes to an end. When President Agyekum Kuffour finished his term, Aliu Mahama could not take over the leadership of the NPP because he had not been groomed enough to be accepted by the NPP as their next leader and it was not surprising that we saw about nineteen people all wanting to be the flagbearer of the NPP. If our political leaders and our political parties have a clear succession plan, they will start to groom some of their members such that there will be a smooth transition when a leader finishes his term. With the current Presidential candidate of the NDC for the 2024 general elections technically mandated to serve for only one term, if he wins the 2024 election, the million dollar question is that who will take over the leadership mantle from him to lead the party into the 2028 election? Can whoever be picked as the running mate to former President John Mahama in the 2024 Presidential elections, be groomed enough within the four year period such that that individual will be prepared enough and be accepted as the party’s candidate for 2028? There is therefore the need for a strategy to be adopted by all political parties in the country where they will have a proper succession planning and groom their potential leaders to make a peaceful and smooth transition when there is the need for a leadership takeover. The reason why after a President runs his term, we see many party members struggling to be the presidential candidates of their respective political parties is because there is no clear succession plan within the party and for that much no grooming strategy that will automatically bring up a leader who is acceptable by the whole political party and the country as a whole. The problem with choosing a political leader in Ghana is that, there is always a short term plan where many people will come forward after every eight or four years and a choice is made among the contestants after which nothing is done about future leadership until the next election. These are all short term solutions. What we need is that, our political parties should have a long term plan where they will groom their leaders who will go through every aspect of leadership training such that they will be prepared to take over the leadership role when the leader exist the scene and a new leader is needed.

Unless a proper succession planning with good strategic grooming process is put in place within those institutions in the country, there will always be confusion anytime a leader is needed. For businesses and churches, if we don’t want to see the toil and energy of their founders go into the drain after they exist the scene, we should learn to delegate, train and groom people who will make their leaders retire or exist the scene in peace. Having a clear, strategic succession planning will be vital to ensuring a long term growth of the organization. At a point in our lives as leaders, we should be in a position to identify critical positions within our organizations and develop action plans for individuals to assume those positions especially when we no more occupy those leadership positions.

Augustine Boahen
Calgary, Canada
Email: Osonoba58@gmail.com

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