Mills opens Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Colloquium

Accra, May 24, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Sunday opened the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Colloquium in Accra, with a call on Africans to leave lasting legacies that would position them properly in posterity. "How are we going to be remembered?", President Mills asked, but added "as we celebrate Kwame Nkrumah, it must be alive in our minds that it is our time to build on the lasting legacy of our First President so that individually and collectively, posterity will also position us properly in the history of Ghana.

". The forward looking visionary that Nkrumah was, it is incumbent on this generation to reel back into time and move the Continent forward beyond the point where the doyens of the Liberation Struggle breasted the tape." The three-day colloquium, with the theme, "Contemporary Relevance of Kwame Nkrumah's Contribution to Pan Africanism and Internationalism," forms part of the year-long celebration of the centenary of Dr Nkrumah which began in 2009.

The colloquium is being organised by the Government of Ghana in collaboration with the African Union in honour of Dr Nkrumah, whom President Mills said had bequeathed to Ghanaians a sense of self worth, national unity and pride.

In attendance at the opening ceremony was Dr Kenneth Kaunda, First and former President of Zambia and a contemporary of Dr Nkrumah, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, and Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister who represented President Goodluck Jonathan.

Also in attendance were three of the children of Dr Nkrumah: Francis, Sekou and Samia, as well as leaders of the Nkrumahist parties, including Dr Edward Mahama of the People's National Convention, Prof Agyemang Badu Akosa and Prof Nii Noi Dowuona and some surviving members of the Nkrumah Government.

There was also a representation from the African Union Commission comprising Mr Erastus Mwencha, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission and Madam Bience Gawanas, Commissioner for Social Affairs at the African Union Commission.

President Mills said there was no better way to remember Ghana's First President than to re-engage the psyche of the nation and direct it towards the critical role Dr Nkrumah played in the struggle to launch Ghana onto the pedestal of nationhood.

Recalling that Nkrumah was voted the African Personality of the last millennium, President Mills said celebrating Ghana's First President was not just for the sake of doing so but because of the things he stood for and what he gave Ghana and Africa.

"Dr Kwame Nkrumah's contribution to the development of Ghana and Africa, creating a vision for Ghana, nurturing and forming the life and spirit of our nation, are unsurpassed.

" Beyond this inclusiveness in our politics, Kwame Nkrumah broke down ethnic barriers in Ghanaians politics and everyday life, imbuing in us a strong sense of oneness, national identity and pride. "In Kwame Nkrumah, there was no North, South East or West; there was one Ghana, and above all Osagyefo bequeathed to Ghanaians a sense of self worth, national pride and dignity."

President Mills said Kwame Nkrumah embodied and promoted the Ghanaian identity far beyond the shores of the African Continent. President Mills expressed the gratefulness of Ghana to the eminent persons from the AU and the heads of state present as Ghana put the final gloss on the centenary celebrations.

Mr Mwecha later launched the two-year African Cultural Renaissance Campaign, aimed at reinvigorating the shared values and traditions of the Continent, and urged member states to ratify the charter on it. On behalf of President Mills, Ghana's Foreign Affairs Minister, Alhaji Mohamed Mumuni, unveiled the plaque of the African Cultural Renaissance. 24 May 10