Ending the Culture of Comparing: A Call for Accountability and Action in Leadership

In a compelling reflection on leadership, George Akom, Senior Assistant Registrar at the Ghana Communication Technology University, has called for an end to the persistent habit among leaders of comparing bad situations instead of addressing them effectively.

In his commentary, Akom emphasizes that when citizens raise genuine concerns about hardship, poor public services, or weak governance, leaders often respond not with solutions but with comparisons—citing that others are worse off, the past was more challenging, or another country faces greater struggles. While such arguments may sound persuasive, Akom argues, they achieve nothing in terms of problem-solving.

“Leadership is not tested by how well failure is explained, but by how effectively it is corrected,” he asserts. He explains that comparing failures does not transform them into successes, and a bad situation does not become acceptable simply because a worse one exists elsewhere.

Akom warns that this culture of comparison has become a convenient shield against accountability, allowing poor outcomes to be defended rather than addressed. Citizens do not elect leaders to explain why conditions could have been worse; they elect them to make things better. Roads are not repaired by statistics, hospitals are not improved by historical references, and unemployment is not reduced by pointing to other struggling economies. What people experience daily remains the truest measure of leadership.

Highlighting the dangers of this justification culture, Akom notes that it normalizes mediocrity, weakens accountability, and stalls innovation. Over time, governments risk managing decline rather than pursuing progress, while citizens become conditioned to endure rather than demand improvement.

He also stresses the long-term consequences on public trust, arguing that repeated justification through comparison fosters cynicism and disengagement. “A society that loses faith in solutions eventually settles for explanations, and that is a dangerous place for any democracy,” he writes.

True leadership, according to Akom, confronts problems honestly, acknowledges shortcomings without defensiveness, proposes practical solutions, and commits to timelines that allow citizens to track progress. Societies, he emphasizes, do not progress by ranking their suffering—they progress by reducing it.

Ending the culture of comparing failures and treating every problem with equal seriousness, Akom concludes, is essential if leadership is to regain meaning and public trust.

Author:

George Akom

Senior Assistant Registrar

Ghana Communication Technology University

kingakom77@gmail.com | +233 24 338 7291