Should the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) win back power in the future, indications are that it will reverse the changes the governing New Patriotic Party plans to make to Founder’s Day, which is observed on Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday.
The NDC, known for its support for Nkrumaist ideals, deems this move as an attempt to distort Ghana’s by enforcing the idea that Ghana had multiple founders.
[contextly_sidebar id=”XaydP2JRP0c4Bm3r9f0cQSa1a6O5zf1g”]The NDC’s Organising Secretary, Kofi Adams, noted to Citi News that “it must be made very clear that a future government, that is not an NPP government will correct this distortion. If they ever attempt to distort this information, it will be corrected.”
The change is only a proposal as yet, but but the September 21 Founder’s Day instituted by the NDC in 2012, has been changed to Nkrumah Memorial Day, via an executive instrument by President Nana Akufo-Addo.
August 4, the Founders Day date, is noted as the date for the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1947 by J.B. Danquah and George Alfred “Paa” Grant, two forebears of the NPP tradition as currently constituted.
The NDC has served notice it will protest on September 21, to register its discontent with the government’s change of the Founders Day.
“Any attempt to force on us some founders will be resisted by all progressive forces in this country. Ghana’s founding president’s birthday is 21st of September. That day has been recognized by even the African Union,” Mr. Adams declared.
“We are not just demonstrating; we are giving indications that, true Ghanaians, Ghanaians with consciences understand and believe that many persons played roles in bringing us independence but Kwame Nkrumah was on top of it and that day has been recognized by Ghanaians and has been recognized by the African Union.”
The NDC government in 2012, earmarked September 21, Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday, as Founder’s Day, sparking the debate over Ghana’s founders and concerns that other key figures in the fight for independence were being sidelined.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana