Celebration of Founder's Day is a wake-up call

Koforidua, Sept. 29, GNA - The People's Independent Movement (PIM), a pressure group, says the celebration of Ghana's Founder's day to commemorate Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah's birthday should be a wake-up call to all progressive forces.

It said progressive forces in Ghana, Africa and the Diaspora must see the need for a serious review of what Nkrumah stood and worked for. "It is a wake-up call to all the progressive forces to see what new ideals, new principles and new philosophies we have developed to strengthen the struggle and the search for the national and continental liberation which Dr Nkrumah dreamt of and worked for." This was contained in a statement issued by the PIM in Koforidua and signed by Nana Addo-Aikins, its spokesman. The statement said after attaining political independence, Ghana and Africa ought to have embarked upon a new round of political struggle that would have led to the breaking down of old colonial institutions and structures.

"This is for us to make a break away from the past for the creation of a new political, economic and social order which Dr Nkrumah dreamt of and worked for".

The statement said Dr Nkrumah's ideals on people's liberation also called for a system of governance which offered opportunity for functional involvement of the people in the decision making process. It said in the course of celebrating Ghana's Founder's Day, Dr Nkrumah's objectives relating to scientific, technological and industrial development together with his call for the establishment of an African Economic Union and an African Continental Union Government should not be lost on the nation and the continent.

"To the African Freedom Foundation (AFF), the time has come for Ghanaians and Africans to show in concrete terms, what we have done and what we are to do to make the dreams of Dr Nkrumah, those of our forefathers and those in the Diaspora led by Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Martin Luther King and others a reality".

"To AFF, Ghana and Africa should by now have used the liberation so far gained to develop to a level where poverty, disease and under-development should have been no more".

To the AFF, the statement indicated that the energy and resources used for the funfair and merry making to celebrate Dr Nkrumah's birthday must be channelled into taking concrete steps to implement and further develop the ideals which Dr Nkrumah stood and worked for. "On the occasion of the celebration of Ghana's Founder's Day, we of the African Freedom Foundation strongly suggest the putting in place of a political formation for a cohesive and a functional progressive front in which all progressive forces in Ghana including political parties and civil society organizations will jointly have a strong presence in national politics."

The statement indicated that the politics being played in Ghana presently between the two rival political camps was not what the nation needed now.

"What Ghana needs presently at this frantic stage of its search for a true path for true freedom and true national development is that type of politics which is based on ideals and principles that pursues consensus-building on what ideology and what political direction the nation should take for its development process".

The statement noted with satisfaction that after several attempts by reactionary forces to douse the flame lit by Dr Nkrumah, the struggle for national and continental liberation was still glowing at an appreciable level. 29 Sept. 10