How Busia rejected requests by Guinea's president for Kwame Nkrumah to undergo treatment in Ghana

Ghanaian historian Kwame Anokye has been detailing the last days of Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, suggesting that the iconic African leader would not have died had the Busia administration granted a request by his family.

In an interview with Max TV, Kwame Anokye detailed that following the Kulungugu bombing attack, Nkrumah suffered a cancerous injury which was only treatable by some herbal medicine from Nkroful, Kwame Nkrumah’s hometown.

Following the coup that toppled his government and forced him into exile, the situation worsened as healthcare providers who attended to him could not find a panacea to the problem.

Owing to that, Kwame Nkrumah’s family wrote to the government, which had Busia as Prime Minister and Edward Akufo-Addo as President, to allow Nkrumah to fly to the country and undergo treatment from the herbalist.

However, the requests were consistently rejected by the government, and that contributed to the death of Kwame Nkrumah.

When Kwame Nkrumah was ousted and sought refuge in Guinea, news emerged that he was very sick. The Guinean government sent a delegation to Ghana to see Busia and plead with him to allow Kwame Nkrumah to undergo treatment for the cancer he suffered during the Kulungugu bombing. This was because the cancer only responded to treatment from some herbal medicine which was done in Nzema, where he came from but Busia refused.

“Another delegation came and begged that Kwame Nkrumah would be confined to a specific place with constant military protection. Busia also rejected that one,” he said on Max TV.

Kwame Anokye was recounting the success of military ruler Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and how he followed Kwame Nkrumah’s blueprint.

He disclosed that I.K. Acheampong, who was a protégé of Kwame Nkrumah, made efforts to bring him back for treatment when he became leader of the country.

Unfortunately for Acheampong, Nkrumah’s condition had worsened, with doctors advising against airlifting him to any destination.

Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, died on April 27, 1972, in Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

EK