Lawrence Frederick Asiamah Tenkorang, a retired Public Works Department staff member, has argued that Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, committed blunders that are responsible for the challenges Ghana is facing today.
According to him, Nkrumah made significant mistakes in the administration of the country after Ghana gained independence in 1957, particularly by retiring Western administrators who, he believes, had accumulated valuable experience in running the country.
He made the remarks in an interview with media personality Kafui Dey, where he was asked whether he liked Kwame Nkrumah.
“He committed some blunders, and that’s why Ghana is suffering now,” he said.
Asked what blunders Nkrumah had committed, Lawrence Frederick Asiamah Tenkorang explained that his concerns were mainly about the administration of the country.
According to him, Westerners had administered the country for 113 years, from 1844 to 1957, and had therefore accumulated considerable administrative experience before handing over power to Nkrumah at independence.
“Administration. The Western people had administered the country for 113 years, from 1844 to 1957. So, they had 113 years of administrative experience. How they were administering the country, it was alright, fine. That’s how I saw it. The country was being administered beautifully, and they handed over power to him, Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.
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The 94-year-old Lawrence Frederick Asiamah Tenkorang further argued that Nkrumah, after assuming leadership, decided to retire the Western administrators who had been involved in running the country, a decision he believes negatively affected Ghana’s administrative system.
He explained that Nkrumah was initially the Leader of Government Business before the country adopted the presidential system. However, after independence, he said Nkrumah questioned why he should continue working with the Western administrators and subsequently retired them.
“Kwame Nkrumah was the Leader of Government Business; presidency hadn’t come yet. Then, one day, he announced that he had gotten independence, so why should he be seeing the whites? He retired them all. He collapsed the administration. There were 113 years of administration, and everything was going on smoothly,” he noted.
Tenkorang maintained that the decision to remove the experienced Western administrators amounted to a collapse of the administrative system that had been built over the 113-year period.
He believes that the disruption to the system had long-term consequences for the country and remains one of the reasons Ghana continues to face difficulties today.
He also raised concerns about Nkrumah’s political activities and ideological leanings, claiming that the former president formed the Convention People’s Party (CPP) underground without the knowledge of members of the Big Six.
“Kwame Nkrumah formed the CPP underground, and the Big Six didn’t know about it. Later on, I got to know Kwame Nkrumah was a Communist. He got his training from Russia, and that’s why everything he did was contrary to what Western people were practising,” he added.
AK/BAI
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