How IK Acheampong did everything possible to grant Kwame Nkrumah's last wish

Former UN Senior Governance Advisor, Prof. Baffour Agyemang-Duah, has provided insightful information about the relationship between Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and one of Ghana’s military leaders, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

Professor Agyemang-Duah disclosed in a Channel One interview that I.K. Acheampong was a protégé of Kwame Nkrumah who mirrored his administration on that of Kwame Nkrumah.

He recounted that upon assuming the reins of the country, I.K. Acheampong made strenuous efforts to bring back Kwame Nkrumah, who was in exile in Bucharest, Romania.

Professor Agyemang-Duah explained that Acheampong went as far as sending Kwame Nkrumah’s first son to Romania to convince his father to return home.

Unfortunately for I.K. Acheampong, Kwame Nkrumah’s health had deteriorated to the point where doctors believed it would be unwise to fly him to Ghana.

However, Kwame Nkrumah had a deathbed wish which he wanted Acheampong to grant when he was no more.

“In the case of Acheampong, we cannot say if the CIA played a role in it. When Nkrumah was dying in Romania, Acheampong sent Dr. Francis Nkrumah to Bucharest to bring back Nkrumah.

“But Nkrumah told him that his condition was such that the doctors would not allow that to happen, but Nkrumah made one request: that if I die, bury me in my hometown. So when he died in Guinea, Acheampong took that responsibility seriously, and we know the extent he went to bring Nkrumah’s body to Ghana,” he said.

Professor Agyemang-Duah revealed that following Kwame Nkrumah’s death on April 27, 1972, I.K. Acheampong pulled every string possible to get the then-president of Guinea, Sekou Toure, to release his body.

Sekou Toure, per Professor Agyemang-Duah’s account of events, had been embittered by the way Ghana treated his good friend, Kwame Nkrumah, and was therefore unwilling to release the body to the country.

I.K. Acheampong, however, did not give up and activated all protocols until Sekou Toure grudgingly agreed to release Nkrumah’s body to the country.

“Acheampong literally had to beg and send the Liberian president to plead that he should give him Nkrumah’s body. It took about three months before he agreed. Initially, there were certain funny conditions like Nkrumah’s ministers should be reinstated and the statue that was knocked down should be re-erected.

“Sekou Toure loved Nkrumah because they were true Pan-Africanists, and Nkrumah bailed him out when the French decided to knock on his head by removing everything from Guinea because Guinea refused to be linked to France after independence,” he said.

Nkrumah’s body was sent to Ghana and, in accordance with his deathbed wish, buried at Nkroful. The body was later removed and buried at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra.

EK