"Bear in mind that the leadership style that Jesus exhibited, demonstrated hard work among people not as lords, masters, but as servants," he said.

Most Rev. Prof. Asante, a former Chairman of the National Peace Council, noted that leadership from a Christian perspective was less about positions and status and more about service function.

He was speaking at the 16th Congregation of the Ghana Baptist University College (GBUC) in Kumasi.

The event was held at the Grace Baptist Church, Amakom, Kumasi, on the theme: “Integrity and ethical leadership: The role of graduates in changing today’s society".

"This conception of leadership hardly defines leadership in terms of the categories of promotion or demotion, position or status, inferiority or superiority," he said.

According Most Rev. Prof. Asante, office bearing was a structural or constitutional concept, a necessary and important one, yet not automatically synonymous with leadership.

Zeroing in on attitude as an indispensable part of leadership, Most. Rev. Asante told the students that if they came to the university to basically acquire a degree, then they had failed.

“If you have only come here for a degree, you have failed. If it is just a degree, you have failed.

People speak of the best or worst leaders when they mention behaviour patterns or leadership styles.

"Leadership denotes a certain pattern of behaviour stemming from a sense of mission and vision bound together by a particular understanding of the nature of the relationship between the leadership and the community," he said.

Leadership, according to Most Rev. Prof. Asante, was an authority in office a channel for the realisation of divine norms in social relationships, emphasising that he was speaking from the context of a Christian, that leadership was a channel with divine norms to be in operation in our society.

Moreover, he explained that Leadership was the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it towards goals or beneficial permanence that fulfilled the group’s real needs, quoting John Haggai, a visionary, a Christian world statesman, an evangelist, and a master of the pulpit.

In an admonition to the students, the Special Guest Speaker charged the graduating students to embrace integrity as they join society, saying, “Be true ambassadors of Christian leaders - Leaders with integrity as you enter society and the job market as graduates from a Christian university".
Interview

In a sideline interview with the acting President of GBUC, Wiafe Nti Akenten, he touched on some concerns facing the university and the key among them was inadequate resources.

Mr Oti Akenten appealed to the state to support GBUC since it was providing an essential service to the state.

He also appealed for a quota of the President’s scholarship scheme to private universities.