{"id":341594,"date":"2017-08-03T05:07:19","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T05:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=341594"},"modified":"2017-08-03T05:07:19","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T05:07:19","slug":"adom-otchere-clashes-with-pratt-over-ghanas-founding-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/08\/adom-otchere-clashes-with-pratt-over-ghanas-founding-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Adom-Otchere clashes with Pratt over Ghana’s founding history"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) on August 4,\u00a0two renowned journalists, Paul Adom-Otchere\u00a0and Kwesi Pratt Jr cut to the layers of the Founder’s Day versus Founders’ Day debate.<\/p>\n
This longstanding debate was brought to the fore earlier in 2017 when\u00a0President Nana Akufo-Addo’s speech delivered at Ghana\u2019s 60th independence anniversary parade came under attack over what some said was a skewed account of Ghana\u2019s history to suit his father, Edward Akufo-Addo and uncle, J.B. Danquah who were critical players in Ghana pre-independence.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”RutGmCBC3E7ykCWAP3xtnD83dgvM3jUl”]This is criticism Kwesi Pratt would be likely to get behind given he is of the firm view Kwame Nkrumah should be regarded as the Founder of Ghana and celebrated as is done on his birth date, September 21.<\/p>\n
Paul Adom-Otchere, on the other hand, believes Ghana’s history is incomplete without due regard given to the likes of the leadership of the UGCC, amongst others.<\/p>\n
There can be more than one founder<\/strong><\/p>\n Drawing from the American example, he reminded that\u00a0John Adams,\u00a0Benjamin Franklin,\u00a0Alexander Hamilton,\u00a0John Jay,\u00a0Thomas Jefferson,\u00a0James Madison, and\u00a0George Washington\u00a0\u201care christened as founders of the United states because they sat down together on a particular date to decide on how the federation works,\u201d despite Washington being that country’s first president.<\/p>\n However, in Ghana, a few things went amiss over the decades, Paul Adom-Otchere said, starting with the work of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society to oppose the Lands Bill of 1897 which threatened land tenure and another layer of the indigenous sovereignty.<\/p>\n “This was a monumental act of John Mensah Sarbah and the aborigines and Sarbah formed the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society on the 4th of August 1897 at Saltpond and this was the single most successful achievements of the Aborigines which helped the Gold Coast progress the way it did, and then to the West African National Congress of Casely-Hayford and others.\u201d<\/p>\n In 1947, over 100 years of the Bond of 1844, J.B. Danquah, George Alfred “Paa” Grant and others put in motion moves to kick start the independence drive with the formation of the UGCC.<\/p>\n