Ghana celebrates Dr. Kwame Nkrumah today

Today, September 21, 2015, is a day set aside by Ghana to honour and reflects the contributions of Dr Kwame Nkrumah towards the growth of the country.

“September 21st of each year, Founder’s Day, which is the birthday of Dr. Nkrumah, is celebrated as a holiday in Ghana in honour of the country’s first President for his unparalleled selflessness, dedication to the liberation of Ghana and Africa and his unending spirit of no-compromise in so far as Ghana’s interest was at stake”, a statement signed by the Minister for Communications, Dr Edward Omane Boamah said.

The day will be marked with lectures, symposiums and other programmes to highlight his achievements and vision.

Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah was born as Kofi Nwiah at Nkroful in the Western Region of Ghana. After training as a teacher at Achimota College, Accra and left for further studies in the United States of America, where he stayed for more than a decade.

Dr Nkrumah returned to the then Gold Coast in 1947 at the invitation of the pro-independence nationalist movement, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to be its General-Secretary.

He was arrested with five other leading members of the UGCC, for political reasons in 1948 and they became known as "The Big Six".

He stayed with the UGCC till 1949 when he broke away with others to form the Convention People's Party (CPP) which eventually led the Gold Coast to independence.

He died 43 years ago at the age of 63 in Bucharest, Romania where he had gone for medical treatment.