The Convention People’s Party (CPP), the party Dr. Kwame Nkrumah formed, has criticized the Akufo-Addo government for re-christening the Founder’s Day commemoration as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.
President Akufo Addo has through an executive instrument proposed a renaming of September 21, as Nkrumah Memorial Day.
Speaking at a ceremony to mark the day, Chairman of the CPP, Dr. Edmund Delle rather advised the government to deliver on its promises and stop the attempts to “rewrite history.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”ZEe1aqBhydTyroieogcS9MrEPR0b2Aje”]“The CPP considers as unfortunate recent attempts by reactionary forces to once again attempt to rewrite the history of Ghana and water down the contribution of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to the emancipation of the black man as well as Ghana’s independence. Osagyefo is the foundation stone of Ghana and a leading pacesetter for the emancipation of Africa,” he said.
Dr. Delle eulogized Dr. Nkrumah for inspiring other African countries to attain idenpendence.
“The Man Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s prophetic declaration on the eve of Ghana’s independence inspires the black man to create the African personality and identity. Dr. Kwame Nkrumah served as a foundation stone upon which modern Ghana, Africa as well as the black generation was created. Dr. Nkrumah’s functional injection for Ghana to rededicate ourselves to the struggles to emancipate other countries in Africa is still relevant in today’s huge state of Ghana, Africa and the black man.”
“60 years after independence, Ghana and Africa are still struggling for attainment of total liberation of the African continent; economically, socially, politically and from mental slavery. Ghana and Africa failed to adhere to the great prophetic instruction by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah cautioning us against divisionism,” he added.
Scrap both holidays
Meanwhile in an interesting twist, the 2016 Flagbearer of the CPP, Ivor Greenstreet in a Citi News interview stated that both holidays are unnecessary and ought to be scrapped.
“For me, both days should be scrapped. We neither need a 21st September nor a 4th August. For me 6th of March, independence day which is already a holiday is enough for us to celebrate all of those who contributed to our struggle for independence and for contributing to the development of this nation of which we all agree that in terms of the creation of the this country, Kwame Nkrumah towers over everybody but that is not to say that other people did not contribute,” he added.
Debate of founder or founders’ of Ghana
This comes on the back of an unending debate of who the true founding fathers of Ghana were.
Whereas some believe that Nkrumah founded Ghana and must be celebrated as such, members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) think otherwise.
According to them, others including J.B. Danquah helped champion Ghana’s independence hence must all be acknowledged.
In view of this, President Akufo-Addo has triggered the necessary Executive Instruments to designate August 4 as Founders Day and September 21 in every year as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin