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At the Founder’s Day lecture on September 21 at the National Theatre in Accra, key note speaker Akilagpa Sawyerr noted that he takes Nkrumah seriously because the Osagyefo uniquely represented an inspired period in Ghana and Africa as a whole. He stated however that there was need to pick lessons from the positives and negatives of the life and times of the Osagyefo.
According to the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, although Nkrumah did not work alone as he joined forces with collaborators including the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), market women, trades unions, the youth and even the unemployed; “he was heads and shoulders above all others then and since.”
Prof. Akilagpa Sawyerr
In Prof. Sawyerr’s estimation, Nkrumah left a personal imprint on the liberation movement across Africa in the 1950s and 60s, left a personal imprint on the first decade of Ghana’s nation state, captured the spirit and mobilised the fighting spirt of the masses for a sustained and concerted effort in demanding liberty.
On his personal traits which served him so well, the former Council of State member noted “Nkrumah’s leadership, intellectual quality and his ideological clarity, his organisational abilities and genuine two way rapport with the people set him apart from his peers.”
But despite Nkrumah’s own mettle, Prof. Akilgpa Sawyerr rendered the changing times also aided Nkrumah mentioning that the Great Depression, 2nd World War impact, weakening of colonial grip, America hegemony and the cold war producing the Soviet Union (an alternative), rise of 3rd world countries as well as emergence of new institutions like the United Nations all helped Nkrumah’s cause as well.
The man who was part of Ghana’s delegation in the Rawlings regime to renegotiate with Kaiser Aluminum (the US company which financed the Akosombo dam) also mentioned “internal Gold Coast rhetoric, rise of the middle class and involvement of the masses changed things for the better.”
“Although there have been struggles before Nkrumah in the Gold Coast, missing in the struggle was mass involvement of the people in an organised and sustained manner until Nkrumah arrived. The political movement including the United Goal Coast Convention (UGCC) had failed to identify the factor which eventually determined decisive action. His ideology transcended ethnicity and religion. It was an ideology which took into account Pan-Africanism,” Prof. asserted.
“In two years with no money, no cadres, except his resolve and ideology, Nkrumah formed a solid political organisation in the Gold Coast which won every single election it contested,” Prof Akilagpa submitted to rapturous applause adding this sheer brilliance of the man made him title his piece “Cometh the hour, Cometh the man.”
He stressed that it was Nkrumah who championed the political autonomy of Ghana with his non-aligned stand adding it was he who consciously forged the national unity of the state with emphasis on Ghana as one and the people as one.
The good old professor touched on the human centered interventionist policies of the Nkrumah regime including state led, people centered socio-economic transformation he championed.
Critical infrastructural development leading to building of expansive roads, dams and harbours.
Agriculture modernised and organised ensuring food sovereignty.
Educational projects which led to erection of new schools as well as free compulsory schooling from the elementary stage to the university level. Establishment of medical schools, teacher training colleges, Ghana Academy of Sciences, the Centre for Scientific and industrial research while ensuring citizens had access to affordable housing as well as “he going nuclear in the 60s, can you believe that,” Prof. asked?
In learning lessons from the negatives, the key note speaker for the 2017 Founder’s Day lecture stated there was cult worshiping, excessive restriction on freedoms, corruption, economic hardships on the people in the 60s coupled with expensive errors eventually leading to his government’s overthrow.
Madam Susan with Bernard Monah
“Lack of imagination and the begging bowl mentality is the result of a truly pedestrian leadership Africans have suffered from their leaders but no one can accuse Nkrumah of lack of vision and imagination or having a begging bowl mentality. It is the reason why we celebrate him on his 108th birth anniversary for despite his errors, he remains the greatest and explains why in a BBC poll of dead and living Africans, he was voted the African of the millennium,” he summed up.
For Comrade Kwesi Pratt Jnr., this year’s gathering is different because of the attempt to rewrite or falsify Ghana’s history adding he was particularly delighted to see young ones and students in the gathering as they ought to know the facts and sieve away the propaganda by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) folks who want to highlight their ancestors when they don’t merit it.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr.
In a show of solidarity, the Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG), the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), All African Peoples’ Revolutionary Party (AAPRP), Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), Rastafari Council of Ghana, the African Black Star Line Credit Union, the African Youth Improvement Foundation (AYIF), the Peoples National Convention (PNC), the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and All People’s Congress (APC) were in session whereupon ‘Massa’ Kwesi charged them that if they chose to unite and seek a common purpose to advance the interest of the Ghanaian people, no force can stop them.
“Nkrumah is celebrated today because he rejected the politics of ‘big-men’ rather choosing to do the politics of the masses involving market women, nurses, students, unlettered people, fisher folks, farmers etc. He thought us how to avoid the burden of colonialism,” Comrade Pratt stressed.
According to the Insight Newspaper founding editor, the opposition to Nkrumah started way back even before he became president adding his detractors attempted killing him by bombing his home he shared with his mother, Nyaniba behind the Malata Market.
He observed that Nkrumah’s only sin why he is hated by Danquah, Busia and their descendants including Ghana’s current president Akufo-Addo is that he dared to bring the masses to the fore in Ghana’s political struggle rather than leave it for the merchants and lawyers who thought themselves superior. For this they labeled him a communist.
He stated, the hate was so much that in Busia’s regime “they sat on a certificate of urgency for 17 hours and passed a law banning the printing of images of Nkrumah or being in possession of his books or items.”
He continued: “I thought they called themselves intellectuals but these intellectuals set or caused to be set on fire, books of Nkrumah on university campuses after his overthrow in 1966. Intellectuals who fear books, they be charlatans,” he roared to rapturous applause adding “instead of counter arguing their claims in books in a scholarly debate, they rather used brute force.”
NPP elements claim: Nkrumah couldn’t be founder of Ghana because he never won an election.
Kwesi’s Answer: Nkrumah came from Nkroful in the Western Region and took on UGCC member Obetsebi Lamptey for the odododiodio seat and beat him “pasapasa” (terribly).
NPP Claim: Nkrumah was invited so couldn’t be founder.
Kwesi’s Take: Whom on the UGCC team wasn’t invited except wealthy merchant Paa Grant. In fact Grant invited R.S. Blay with intentions of forming a political force only for Mr. Blay to bring along Danquah who wasn’t even invited. Danquah was a brought-along-second hand.
For comrade Prattt jnr., the UGCC elements have had enough honour in the country including the Busia Circle, Obetsebi Lamptey Circle, Ako Adjei Interchange, Danquah Circle etc. but claiming the founder title cannot be theirs.
He noted if the NPP claim that others equally worked for independence so Nkrumah couldn’t be the state’s founder, then the ex-service men, Dzankle Dzewu, Mr. Balogun, the Fante Confederacy must as well be founders of the Ghana state.
He reminded attendees that Akufo-Addo’s late father (a UGCC member) sitting in judgement with two other judges found UGCC fellow member and NPP’s Jake Obetsebe Lamptey father guilty of terrorism over certain bomb explosions on the life Nkrumah asking how can a terrorist be a founder of a nation?
On the Ghana name, he noted it was incisive that Nkrumah as early as 1948 birthed the school Ghana National College showing he was conscious of that name even while the NPP claim Danquah emerged with the name adding at the Motion of Destiny laying which Danquah and co boycotted, Nkrumah again used the name Ghana as the proposed name for the new state.
The Socialist Forum of Ghana strongman warned citizens to be vigilant and guarded, pointing out the deliberate attempt to generate a new debate about the Founder’s Day debate was done when university teachers had threatened a massive strike action, taxi and trotro drivers threatening a strike action over high fuel cost with a gallon going for 20 cedis, 12 TUC groups threatening a strike and inflation hovering above 12%.
For the veteran journalist and Nkrumahist, in 35 years the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been the government in Ghana with citizens only changing the face opting for either the National Democratic Congress (NDC) or New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“The IMF has been in power since 1983and has not left power since. Our coffers are dry because of this. Till our gold mining yields more than 3% to the state and oil more than 13% we only get to change the face of government. The resources of Ghana must be explored for the benefit of Ghanaians,” he rallied.
He reminded all that were Nkrumah alive, he would have called for the liberation of the Palestine state from the colonial yoke of Israel. Charging that Morocco’s colonization of Western Sahara ought to be condemned by Ghana’s leaders but there is silence exposing the double standards of today’s leaders who speak flowery words yet act little on the ground.
A Nkrumahist and scientist, Susan Adu Amankwah for her part noted that others in the independence struggle will always be acknowledged but that Nkrumah is founder of the modern Ghana state is without doubt.
Susan Adu Amankwah
She observed, realising that an Afrocentric education was the optimal powerbase of Africa and humanity, Nkrumah after taking charge established 274 basic and secondary schools across the country in 5 years an unprecedented feat.
In his 1963, 7 year developmental drive, Nkrumah ensured free fee paying compulsory education from elementary to tertiary plus free textbooks Madam Amankwah recounted.
She stated, he erected the Cape Coast University and also shifted focus from humanities teaching to the social sciences with emphasis on modernised agriculture, stimulated an educational drive in the northern part of Ghana particularly who had been deprived by the colonial regime deliberately, made special provision for females to rise through the school system ending in increased female university teachers, doctors, nurses, MPs, deputy commissioners and a judge at the Supreme Court.
As is common knowledge, Madam Amankwah reminded all about Nkrumah’s industrialization drive which led to the setting up of the Aboso Glass Factory, Pwalugu Tomato Factory, Oil Palm Plantation at Kade among several others which moved Ghanaians from shop keepers and retailers of imported goods to skilled professionals.
Dr. Raymond Atuguba
The lecture was attended by the mases and notable people. It was chaired by Dr. Raymond Atuguba, a lecturer of law at the University of Ghana.
: michael eli dokosi/www.blakkpepper.com/ghana
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