March 21, 1952: The day Kwame Nkrumah became first Prime Minister of Gold Coast

Today in history, on 21 March 1952, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first prime minister of the Gold Coast (Now Ghana).

Kwame Nkrumah was released from Prison on February 12, 1951 and was summoned by Sir Charles Arden-Clarke, the Governor, and asked to form a government on 13 February after his party, the Convention People’s Party (CPP), won the 1951 elections.

The new Legislative Assembly met on 20 February 1951, with Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah as Leader of Government Business, and E.C. Quist as President of the Assembly.

A year later, the constitution was amended to provide for a Prime Minister on 10 March 1952.

On March 21st 1952, Kwame Nkrumah was elected by secret ballot to the Legislative Council after winning by 45 votes to 31 with 8 absentions.

Nkrumah requested for independence within the Commonwealth. He went to Parliament to lay before it his Motion of Destiny.

At the time, his challenges included holding together the fractious and incongruous 4 territories which were juxtaposed in proximity and propinquity, namely the Gold Coast Colony, Ashanti Colony, Trans-Volta Togoland and the Northern Territories.

It would be five more years before full independence was realized, and the Gold Coast became the self-governed nation of Ghana.

At 12 noon on 6 March 1957, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah declared Ghana independent.