Speech: Mills's address at the Nkrumah colloquium

is Excellency President Abdoulaye Wade,

His Excellency Kenneth Kaunda,

Deputy AU Chairperson,

Right Honourable Speaker,

Her Ladyship, Chief Justice,

Ministers of State,

Chairman of the Planning Committee,

Distinguished Invited Guests,

Fellow Ghanaians,

On behalf of the Government and people of Ghana, I welcome you, President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, former President of Zambia, comrade Kenneth Kaunda, Deputy AU Chairperson and all friends of Ghana who have come from beyond our shores and borders to join us celebrate the life and work of an illustrious son of Ghana and Africa.

Ghana is grateful to you for your presence as we put the final gloss on what has been a befitting year-long celebration of the centenary birthday celebration of the First President of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

There could not have been a better way to remember Ghana’s First President than to reengage the psyche of the nation and direct it towards the critical role Dr. Nkrumah played in the struggle to launch us onto the pedestal of nationhood.

Of course, Africa joined us to immortalize the memory of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah because of the role he played in the African Liberation struggle.

It is not surprising that at the turn of the millennium, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was voted African Personality of the millennium gone by.

Indeed, Ghana will continue to appreciate the AU’s decision to make the birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, September, a special day on the Union’s calendar.

Invited distinguished guests, fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, we are not celebrating our First President for the sake of doing so; we are celebrating him because of what he stood for and what he gave Ghana and Africa.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s contributions to the development of Ghana and Africa; to 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 Ghanaian 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.

Above all, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah bequeathed to Ghanaians a sense of self worth, national pride and dignity.

He embodied and promoted the Ghanaian identity far beyond the shores of the African Continent.

Decades after his death, when Ghana and Africa have joined forces to immortalize what Nkrumah stood for, it has come to the fore that the ideals of Dr. Nkrumah are more relevant today than they were at the time when he espoused his ideology.

Distinguished Invited guests, fellow Ghanaians, brothers and sisters, the forward-thinking visionary that Dr. 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.

Fellow Ghanaians, as we celebrate Kwame Nkrumah, it must be alive in our minds that it is our time to build on the legacy of our First President so that individually and collectively, posterity will also position us properly in the history of Ghana.

I thank the Planning Committee for rolling out the year-long programme and doing the nation proud with their hard work.

Of course, I thank you, my fellow Ghanaians, for supporting and participating in the activities.

Ayekoo to all of us!

May God continue to bless our homeland Ghana and Africa and make us great and strong.

Thank you for your attention.