Essikadu's role in Pre-Independence Struggle ignored

Takoradi, March 21, GNA - Madam Ama Soma, a 79 year old activist who was involved in the 1948 Positive Action Struggles has said Essikadu's role in the struggle has never been recognised and rewarded. Madam Soma, who chaired the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Campus Lectures, organised by the Students Representation Council of the Takoradi Polytechnic, with the All African Students Union, at the weekend, stressed that Essikadu deserved special mention each time Ghana's Pre-Independence stories were told.

It was on the theme, "His ideas, His vision, his Times and the Record.

She said Anthony Woode, a trade unionist, Pobee Biney, a railway driver and several other railway workers, took active parts in the 'Positive Action' that later spread to several parts of the country, culminating in Ghana's independence.

"We were arrested, beaten, injured and some, including Nana Kobina Nketsia, the IV, went to prison for their various roles in the Independence Struggle," she added.

Essikadu is a major suburb of the Sekondi, the city which pairs with Takoradi as the capital of the Western Region. Nana Soma who was then 21 years old, said the current practices of divide and rule, ethnic bias and abuses against each other were signs of the disasters which Dr Kwame Nkrumah tried to prevent. She said Dr. Nkrumah promoted unity and worked with people of various educational and tribal backgrounds without discrimination so present day governments should emulate such principles in the interest of national peace.

"Polarisation of the country along tribal, ethnic, educational and social lines is a recipe for disaster that must be avoided at all costs."

Nana Soma advised the youth to be ready to die for their country, adding that, this would be the greatest sacrifice anyone could make to his or her nation.

She challenged people in government to adopt some of the leadership styles of Dr. Nkrumah and focus more on the infrastructural development of the country. 21 March 10