CPP's Independence Day Message

Ghana's 55th Independence Anniversary

We need to wean ourselves off policies not to the benefit of Ghanaians.

On the occasion of Ghana’s 55th independence anniversary, the Convention

Peoples Party (CPP) extends hearty greetings to all Ghanaians and Africans throughout the world. On the 6th March, 55 years ago, Ghana became the first African colony

south of the Sahara to gain independence from colonial rule. This became significant not only for the Gold Coasters who were now Ghanaians, but for all Africans and other peoples then languishing under colonial rule. Indeed Dr Kwame Nkrumah could not have established the connection between our independence and the struggles going on when he stated that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked up with total liberation of the African continent.

The decolonisation process reached its climax in 1960 when not less than 20 ex-colonies gained their independence, but a number of countries were still under the yoke of the most brutal and intransigent colonial regimes, especially in the Portuguese colonies, settler regimes in Kenya, Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. For these countries, the struggle took longer and involved the greatest sacrifices in sweat, blood and tears until they attained their independence.

Ghana, under the CPP, was quick to grasp the emergence of other forms of domination on the world political horizon and Nkrumah took steps to ensure that Ghana was launched on the path toward economic independence. From an initial stock of just over a thousand primary schools at the end of the Second World War, the CPP government went on to build several thousand more, not counting the many secondary schools and hospitals that came on stream to provide education and health for the people of the emerging nation. Over sixty state corporations were established to provide training, skills and employment to the people of Ghana. The Ghanaian state stepped in where the private sector was weak to provide entrepreneurial leadership in a colonial economy that was oriented toward exporting what we produced and importing what we consumed. Economic policy was directed toward the creation of internal linkages and adding value to local produce. The ultimate objective was to deliver the people out of the poverty, ignorance and disease that had been the lot of Africans under colonialism and lay the foundations for an industrial revolution in Ghana. The CPP was however acutely aware that such a step could not be taken alone, especially when the colonial powers had structured the world economy and politics in such a way as to maintain their hold over the affairs of their ex-colonies. It recognised the need to boost inter-African trade and other exchanges and exploit the continent’s vast economic and commercial resources primarily to the benefit of the African people. The urgent need to establish structures and institutions that responded to the needs of the African people lay behind the clarion call for African unity and therefore became an integral and key part of the CPP’s foreign policy. The achievement of these objectives was predicated on a change of mind-set, along with an appreciation of African history, culture and traditions in a dynamic way as represented in the concept of African personality. This revolutionary journey was cut short in Ghana through the CIA inspired coup d’état of February 24 1966. If today, the sterling contribution of Kwame Nkrumah to this humungous task has been so recognised as to make him Africa’s Man of the 20th Century as well as Africa’s Man of the Millennium, then it is a recognition of the enduring relevance of the key tenets of self determination, social justice and Pan-Africanism that are the basis of CPP’s ideology for which Nkrumah stood and worked for. Recent events in Ghana and Africa point to the need to redouble our efforts to eradicate the causes of our continued subjugation and underdevelopment. The ongoing exposure of corrupt practices shows that the Ghanaian and for that matter the African elite, instead of championing the cause of their people continue to work in the interest of foreign powers and narrow local interests. The forces of reaction appear to be gaining an upper hand over those of progress as is evident in the increasing mass of unemployed and under-employed, the huge housing deficit and above all, the yawning gap between rich and poor. We therefore call on all Ghanaians to use this occasion to reflect on our condition as a nation and ask ourselves whether our politics, economy and society should continue to be dominated by retrograde forces of the NPP and NDC that have presided over the sorry state of our people.

We need to wean ourselves off these parties and their policies that have not been to the benefit of Ghanaians. To this end we ask Ghanaians to join the CPP, the party of true independence, progress and prosperity for all!

FORWARD EVER! BACKWARD NEVER!

SIGNED:

Nii Armah Akomfrah

Director of Communication