Dear Prof Mills,
I'd be most surprised if you remember me from your Company Law class of 1996 at the UGBS. I, on the other hand, remember you well; I even remember your promise to continue teaching after your NDC won the 1996 election. It is said that you were assigned a lot of responsibility so that may be why you couldn't remain a teacher as you intended. Anyway, I dropped the course after you left for some reason I can't remember now.
Your former student would like to share a few ideas with you in 3 short letters, including this one, if you don't mind. These won’t be lengthy reads and you probably know about all the stuff that I intend to write about anyway. You may consider these letters as reminders from your P.A., if you will.
I start with a very simple request: verify what you hear. You have been chosen to provide a service to the people of Ghana, the service of leadership. Your success should go beyond statistics and reflect in the lives of your customers (aka Ghanaians). Your success should be both discernible and measurable. If you attempt to pass off mediocre performance as success too advanced for the ordinary man to comprehend or feel, you’ll guarantee yourself a painful arse-kicking out of the Jubilee House in 4 yrs.
Those selected to help you serve at your pleasure. It may be in their interests to keep that fragile pleasure alive by constant drips of good news from time to time. Never forget those words made famous by your mentor, JJ, at his handover to your predecessor: “beware of fan-fool respect”. When reports of success flow your way like Madoff’s annual 15% return to investors, without fail, verify!
With your permission, I’d like to suggest one way to verify what you hear.
Market researchers have used a particular tool to good effect. It’s called Mystery Shopping. You may read about this tool here. I suggest that you recruit 3 or so associates, either secretly or with the help of your Chief of Staff.
When you are told that the number of days to register a business has been reduced from 120 days to 80, send them to register businesses and report the experiences to you. When the Ghana Free Zones Board say they assess applications in 2 weeks, send your secret corps to verify. I firmly believe you can keep them occupied for the whole of your 4 years in office. This is akin to a manager using the grapevine in his organisation to keep himself informed, as you must have done in your several years at the IRS.
The benefits are self-evident. An informed President can better evaluate his government’s performance and do what he has to do. And Prof, you have a lot to do!
Yours sincerely,
Yaw
