Ghanaians urged to recognise relevance of Founder’s Day- Dr Jonah

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June 17, 2009

A POLITICAL Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Kwesi Jonah has urged Ghanaians to recognise the relevance of the intended Founder’s Day celebration to be instituted in the country.
He, therefore, urged the government to also translate the ideas and ideals Nkrumah represented into concrete action.
Dr Jonah made the assertions in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.
He said the day should be a ceremony where the main achievements of Nkrumah would be highlighted in the media in the form of radio and television discussions, lecturers and symposiums in schools.
Congratulating the government for its intention to institute the Founder’s Day celebration, Dr Jonah suggested to the government to specifically highlight the good things that Nkrumah wanted to achieve and see which of his plans and projects were still relevant today.
“Nkrumah is the only African leader to lead a sub-Saharan African country to independence and that alone is a significant achievement to be celebrated”, he stated.
Dr Jonah stated that with that achievement, Nkrumah became the symbol of hope and the source of inspiration for all liberation movements in Africa.
He said the achievements of Nkrumah were so memorable that “Ghanaians can not afford to forget about him”.
“You cannot discuss the liberation of the African continent without mentioning Nkrumah. They all looked up to him”, he added, and enumerated some African liberation movements that looked up to Nkrumah experience.
“Some of these movements which sought advice from Nkrumah included the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) from Namibia, African National Congress (ANC) from South Africa, the National Liberation Front from Algeria, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and many other movements which were hosted at the former Students’ Hostel in Accra”, he stated.
According to him, what made the celebration of Nkrumah even more relevant today could be justified considering two important targets Nkrumah outlined to achieve.
“That is the United States of Africa and unity in Ghana, as the country was nearly divided after independence”, he said.
First, Dr Jonah said, Nkrumah struggled for Ghana’s independence after he left the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to form the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
That, he said, made the British realise that the struggle for independence had transcended down from the educated elite to the ordinary people.
“They became conscious of the fact that, someone was now mobilising the ordinary people to fight for independence”, he said.
He stated that because the British had no choice, they had to organise three major elections, in 1951, 1954 and 1956, all of which were swept by the CPP.
Dr Jonah said immediately after independence, Dr Nkrumah discovered that some political parties springing up in the country were based on regions, religion and ethnic groupings.
He said Dr Nkrumah, therefore, passed the “Avoidance of Discrimination Act” which banned the formation of political parties based on those lines apart from nationalistic point of view.
Dr Jonah said details of the Act which had unified Ghana so well leading to the formation of the United Party (UP), a combination of all those smaller parties, could now be found in the Political Parties Act in the 1992 Constitution, where it was indicated that all political parties should be organised on national lines and each should have at least offices in two-thirds of districts in Ghana.
He added that immediately after independence, Dr Nkrumah hit the ground running, realising that Ghana as a tiny West African country could not survive against the powerful colonial super powers, and therefore declared that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of Africa.
In that regard, he said, Nkrumah organised the Conference of Independent African states in Accra in 1958 where together with other African leaders, they discussed how to liberate the continent of colonialism.
Dr Jonah said, after that conference, Dr Nkrumah realised that most of his fellow heads of states were conservatives, because most of them had suggested that the continent could be integrated along functional lines and through regional grouping.
He said Dr Nkrumah believed that Africa needed to develop a strong economy and army to defend itself, but unfortunately, “his peers did not understand him”, and the resultant impact, he said, “politically we are unable to resolve the numerous conflicts and genocide which had been recorded on the continent”.