When President Nana Akufo-Addo unveiled the logo for Ghana’s 60th-anniversary celebration, he noted that the National Planning Committee of Ghana: 60 Years On celebration, would be tasked to come up with plans for national monuments as part of the celebration.
One of these monuments will be a Heads of State Museum which the committee has said will be located at the former seat of the Presidency, the Osu Castle, also known as the Christianborg Castle.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Spokesperson of the National Planning Committee of Ghana: 60 Years On, Jefferson Sackey, explained that the Osu Castle will be a centralized place for the curation of mementoes of past Ghana Heads of States.
“You are not now going to look at building something fresh. You are looking at a place where the location or the vicinity is part of history and so the choice is, for example, the Christiansborg or Osu Castle because at the end of the day you know that is where almost all our heads of state lived.”
Mr. Sackey however downplayed concerns arising from the ties of the Osu castle, built by Denish-Norwegians in the 1660s, to slavery, saying it remained “part of history” and that “it is historically a very key place for us to have a museum like that.”
As far as the cost is concerned, Mr. Sackey said the amount was still be worked out, though he assured that there were significant pledges made that gives the committee little cause for worry.
“We had a substantial amount of money being pledged when the logo was unveiled. Now it is up to the subcommittee responsible for sponsorship to follow up.”
The 60th-anniversary celebration will cost an estimated GHc 20 million, and Mr. Sackey said all the major initiatives, from the innovation challenge to the plan to building 60 libraries in 60 deprived communities, have been factored in the estimated cost.
“In this instance, the calculation of the GHc 20 million includes everything. It includes the building of the Heads of State Museum. It includes the march past that we are having not just in Accra but across the length and breadth of our country.”
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana