The Red Cockerel Crows Again
WOODBRIDGE, VA (February 24, 2008) ------ As patriotic Ghanaian nationalists, members of the CPP COALITION, USA of Baltimore-Washington Metropolis will remember always 24th February 1966 as a day of infamy in the history of Ghana as a modern independent sovereign nation. It was on that day that a renegade section of Ghana’s military, with the support of some senior police officers, overthrew the constitutionally existing government of President Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention Peoples’ Party, CPP, through the instrumentality of agents of United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Since the strong resurgence of the CPP in the political affairs of Ghana in the past few years, a cottage industry made up of dedicated critics of the Party has emerged. The mantra of these critics is to complain about “Nkrumah this and Nkrumah that” anytime progressive observers mention the good, noble and worthy works of Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, the First President of Ghana and the CPP in Ghana and Africa. As it turns out, the same critics not comfortable with “Nkrumah this and Nkrumah that” tend also to glorify the military coup d’etat that toppled the regime of Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP on February 24, 1966.
By law, intent and purpose, most governments of Ghana after February 24, 1966 attempted to kill and bury the CPP as a political organization in order to wipe out the name and image of President Kwame Nkrumah. Nevertheless, because of the tenacity of Nkrumahism, there is a resurgence of the Spirit of March 6, 1957 evident in the present core followers of the CPP bandwagon ready to struggle to take back the political power of the country the Party founded.
March 6, 1957, the day Ghana regained political independence, signifies the culmination of one of the most important social revolutions in the second half of the 20th century with the Nkrumah-led CPP as the vanguard political party. The independence of Ghana set in motion the struggle for total emancipation of the continent and people of Africa from European colonization. In that regard, the military coup of February 24, 1966 that ousted the Nkrumah-led CPP regime robbed the people of Ghana the constitutional and internationally acceptable right to chart a chosen path for their existence with a government they had elected.
The United States-sponsored 1966 coup d’etat in Ghana interrupted the progressive forward march of the country emerging from formal European colonization. This placed the country on a path of political chaos and economic deceleration from which it is yet to recover after more than four decades. The persistent backward direction of the political economy of Ghana since 1966 has pushed Ghana to become a society dependent on foreign loans, aid, assistance and grants to supplement its budget. The dependent nature of Ghana’s national economy has created citizens with appetite for imported commodities leading to unemployment, joblessness and conditions of mass poverty.
In the political realm, the coup of 1966 shifted the locus of power of the state of Ghana from the CPP to its ardent opponents, the very people that had opposed Ghana’s demand for independence since the late 1940s. Before the coup d’etat of 1966, Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP had won every national election in the Gold Coast/Ghana beginning in 1951. Thus, what the opponents of Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP could not accomplish through the ballot box was handed over to them on a silver platter by the military regime of National Liberation Council, NLC, led by E. K. Kotoka, J. W. K. Harley, A. K. Deku, and Akwasi Amankwah Afrifa, a Major in the Ghana Army who later promoted himself to the rank of a General.
Thanks to activities and media events in connection with Ghana’s celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2007, members of the younger generation of Ghanaians have had the chance to associate the face of Kwame Nkrumah with his voice and they like his messages and their relevance to today’s conditions. Today, young Ghanaians have become familiar with the work and contributions of Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP and use that as a basis to question performance of post-1966 governments of Ghana. Unlike some of the over 40-year old Ghanaians who have been victimized by negative political socialization against Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP, members of the younger generation have become politically liberated in short order through available public information and hopefully they will make responsible decisions and choices about how and by whom they want to be governed in December 2008.
There is clear evidence in Ghana today that the CPP, as a political organization, is going through a process of re-organization and that has attracted attention of Ghanaians who have experienced almost 40 years of combined inefficient governance. A revamped CPP means a re-organization process with new contemporary tools in the economic, political and social toolbox. There are more “mmobrowa” boys and girls in Ghana today than in 1949 when the so-called “verandah boys” followed Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah to the promised land of political independence.
The evidence is clear also that the CPP as the Party that delivered the people of Gold Coast from servitude under colonial rule is the same that can lead Ghanaians to progressive social development and economic prosperity. In this regard, progressive Nkrumahists cannot, and will not, desist from writing and talking about “Nkrumah this and Nkrumah that.”
Ghanaians know enough to understand that “Kwae a agye wo no, yenfre no kwae wa,” meaning it is useful for them to rely on the CPP, the party that has demonstrated the capacity to deliver efficient governance when in power in order to enhance upward social mobility for the masses of the people. It is in this regard that CPP COALITION, USA of Baltimore-Washington Metropolis says “The Red Cockerel Crows Again.”
FORWARD EVER!
CONTACTS:
Yaw Adu-Otu adu-otu1@yahoo.com
Phone: (703) 615-1821
Kojo Arthur adinkraba2@yahoo.com
