Residents of Bolga share fond memories of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

Correspondence from Upper East Region:

Ghanaians on September 21, 2023, celebrated the birth of the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a day marked as a public holiday in Ghana.

On that day, GhanaWeb's correspondent Sarah Dubure, took a walk through the principal streets of Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region and interacted with a section of the public.

The interaction was centred on the late hero, with whom they shared some fond memories.

Among the memories shared, a physician, Samuel Sapak noted that he brought free education to the doorsteps of Northerners to bridge the educational gap between the North and the South.

"He brought free education to the North. He said Northerners should be given free education. That was the time we went to school and we enjoyed it.

"When the whites left, they gave money and that money, Kwame Nkrumah decided that he would use that money and give free education to the North", he explained.

He expressed profound gratitude to Dr. Nkrumah. He noted that had it not been for his introduction of free education, he would not have been educated.

"If not because of Kwame Nkrumah, some of us would not have been educated. Our fathers wouldn't have agreed to even pay school fees", he said.

He intimated that the payment of school fees would have been a perfect excuse from their guardians to prevent them from going to school.

"They didn't even want us to go to school how much more pay school fees, so if they had said pay school fees, they would use that to say Ok, don't go", he added.

Samuel Alaa pointed out that Northerners were not part of the development agenda of Ghana, but thanks to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Bolga had a feeling of development.

"This Bolga we are in was not part of Ghana. He fought and included Bolga. He went to Navrongo Sandema, Wa, and Bawku. He constructed roads, built a hospital, agricultural Water Works, and banks. He built Commercial Bank."

He added that he gave him a job at PWD which helped him greatly.

Peter Azure also expressed gratitude to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, for the developmental projects he brought to them.

He said: "He built the bridge, the meat factory, the rice mill, and the tomato factory. He did very well.

Samuel Alaa, a resident who spoke to GhanaWeb also pointed out that the good works of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah happened to be the Northerners' pillar of sustenance today.

"The Akosombo he did in the past is what is still helping us. He brought Akosombo light to Bolga, the whole of Ghana. They only gave light to Accra and Kumasi. Rawlings came and continued," he recalled.

He noted that the legacy of the late hero would linger forever as it remains uncontested in Ghana, and the whole of Africa at large.

"After Nkrumah, we haven't seen anyone who has worked like him in Ghana and even Africa. Nkrumah never dies," he said.