Kwame Nkrumah
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah formed the Convention People’s Party that led Ghana to independence, he organized positive action for the people to weaken British colonialism, he organized a conference for mass bodies to work against British colonial rule, Nkrumah and the CPP organized the plebiscite for Volta territories to form parts of Ghana, Nkrumah and the CPP passed the motion of destiny that forced the British to allow Ghana’s independence, Kwame Nkrumah declared the independence of the Gold Coast and named the state Ghana.
Kwame Nkrumah as prime Minister ordered the presentation of the national anthem of Ghana and the lowering of the British flag and the rise of the Ghana flag. Kwame Nkrumah represented the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed Ghanaian masses seeking liberation from foreign exploitation and impoverishment while the educated elites who attacked him sought favor in the eyes of the British colonial administration to maintain their privileges and to be given some measure of political power and recognition within the imperialist controlled system.
Along with the educated elites were the black officers in the colony who sought promotion, bigger salaries and medals of honor within the British imperialist world.
The conflicting interest was: the masses seeking to attack the colonial system as the exploited and impoverished within that colonial system on the one hand versus those elites and officers better off in the colonial system and seeking amicable ways to increase their lots (power and privileges). Kwame Nkrumah was on the side of the impoverished masses and did everything in his power to completely destroy British imperialism in Ghana and even Africa at large.
The elites in the form of the (UGCC, NLM, and UP) and the officers like Constable Ametewey, Kotoko, Ankrah, Harley, etc and their formations like (the NLC, AFRC, and PNDC) conspired on several occasions with U.S. CIA and other imperialist agencies to attack Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP.
Thus, since the struggle for independence, there was a genuine class struggle between some royals, educated elites, and officers (elites) on the one hand and on the other hand; the peasants and marginalized working masses in Ghana (the people).
It was mainly a matter of whether the wealth of the nation shall be used for the well-being of the entire population or whether a minority group of elites would have the power to amass some of this wealth by maintaining the status quo i.e. imperialist control over our political and economic affairs.
The latter proved easier for the elite reactionaries within the Ghanaian society; to align with foreign imperialists for the exploitation of the entire nation than to commit to the struggle against British and U.S. imperialism for national reconstruction. This alliance has often led to organized attacks against the revolutionary line and examples set up by Kwame Nkrumah.
Kwame Nkrumah openly attacked foreign domination and exploitation of African people and took the hard line for the genuine national reconstruction of Ghana.
This genuine love and commitment to the Ghanaian masses interest materialized in his nationwide free education policy, free health care policies, Ghanaians' higher standard of living and rapid industrial growth of the nation.
The bourgeoisie reactionary leaders (NLC, PP, PNDC, NDC, and NPP) who attack Kwame Nkrumah ultimately act in reaction; to justify their evil compromise on foreign exploitation of Ghanaians, and to defend their reactionary ideas and principles (elitism and individualism) in contradiction to selflessness and Nkrumahism.
It is an attack based on the hatred of the example set by Kwame Nkrumah by surrendering sovereign powers of a state to the masses of the people (‘ordinary poor masses’) while elites, pro-capitalist and pro-feudalist are repressed and subjected to mass formations.
There is therefore unity among the class enemy of the Ghanaian masses when it comes to Nkrumah’s legacy. These elites see Nkrumah’s ideas as a threat to their class interest. When we examine the political Policies of both the NPP and NDC, these facts come to light
The NDC attacks on Nkrumah
“The National Democratic Congress (NDC), based upon the “vision and leadership” of its “Founding Father” Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings is the successor to the National Liberation Council (NLC), which illegally overthrew Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) elected government with a “national crime” and “counter-revolutionary rebellion.” If the NDC is established upon the vision and leadership of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and Rawlings vision and leadership is based on the ideological and legal construct of the NLC, then the NDC's basis in vision and leadership is established on the ideological and legal construct of the NLC.
Today the NDC continues the NLC repression of our nation's great Founder Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah and his Party, the CPP, constitutionally, legally, with military decrees, and through the formal education system. At the same time, the NDC is waging a mass deception on Ghanaians and Africans by pretending to be an Nkrumahist and socialist party and using the state machinery to control how Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy will be projected to win elections against the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
2. The P/NDC has also included in the 1992 Constitution, in the section titled Directive Principles of State Policy, Article 36, Section (2) (b) “…a pronounced role of the private sector [capitalism] in the economy,” and in Article 257, Section (6) that “every mineral…throughout Ghana…shall be vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for the people of Ghana.”
This is just like the statement by NLC Chairman, Joseph Arthur Ankrah, on 2 March 1966, “The private sector [capitalism] will remain the largest sector in terms of number of persons engaged and gross output.” The P/NDC has followed the IMF conditions like the NLC.
The Economic Recovery Program (ERP), Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), Program of Action to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment (PAMSCAD), Highly Indebted and Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC), and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), all served to destroy the Ghanaian economy and subject Ghana to neo-colonialism.
Their inferiority complex and submission to European imperialism is a disgrace to Ghana and Africa. The P/NDC “Founding Father” studied how his ‘uncle’ facilitated neo-colonialism under the US capitalist class and continued the same construct as the NLC. He maintained the NLCD 332, Elections and Public Offices Disqualification Decree to prevent CPP members from contesting elections or holding official positions from 1979 to 2000. He maintained NLCD 406, Consequential and Transitional Provisions Decree which confirmed all NLC decrees as “part of the laws of Ghana.”
He maintained Kotoka Trust Decree NLCD 339 which changed Accra International Airport into Kotoka International Airport. Most viciously, he maintained NLCD 119, State Security Decree, which makes it a criminal offense “to communicate with Kwame Nkrumah…harbor [him].”
Those decrees along with Rawlings' own instruments of repression, the Indemnity Clause in the 1992 Constitution which prohibits courts of law in Ghana from adjudicating cases against the NLC for murder, robbery, treason, rape, the suspension or abrogation of the 1960 Constitution which makes Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP constitutionally illegal in the 1992 Constitution as the elected President and government of Ghana, and the establishment of the NLC as the government of Ghana which legalizes their illegality and criminality in the 1992 Constitution, repress Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP.
3. Evidence of the P/NDC repressing Pan-Africanism is the indemnification of the suspension or abrogation of the 1960 Pan-Africanist constitution, signed by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings as Chairman of the PNDC, without allowing citizens the right to legal redress by the imposition of the indemnity clause (PNDCL 313). This clause also denies the sovereignty of the people. The 1960 Constitution states in Article 2 “In the confident expectation of an early surrender of sovereignty to a union of African States and territories, the People now confer on Parliament the power to provide for the surrender of the whole or any part of the sovereignty of Ghana: Provided that the sovereignty of Ghana shall not be surrendered or diminished on any grounds other than the furtherance of African unity.” ” Extracts from ‘Take Nkrumah Back Now’
The NPP Continuous Attacks on Kwame Nkrumah
The NPP; which is in ideology and principle as well as by bloodline an evolved formation of the UGCC leadership, openly attacks the Ghanaian masses' interest through its calculated violence against any Nkrumahist formation and policies. They boycotted the motion of destiny, sent a delegation to London to beg the British queen not to grant Ghana’s independence, attacked Nkrumah’s socialist policies and later resorted to physical violence. Obetsebi Lamptey and JB Danquah were architects of numerous failed attempts to kill Nkrumah and CPP government officials and members
“1. Procuring and producing hand grenades and pistols for the purpose of being used in the intended overthrow of the government. 2. Preparations to assassinate the President, a) at Tema, b) in the precincts of parliament house in Accra, and c) at Kumasi in the month of July 1962. 3.
The attempts to assassinate the president at Kulungugu on 1 August 1962 where a hand grenade was thrown at him, resulting in the death of some people and serious injuries to many others. 4. The throwing of a hand grenade on 9 September 1962, into a crowd assembled at Dodowa villas, near Flagstaff house, the residence of the president, killing and injuring many people. 5. On 6 September 1962, a hand grenade was thrown at the residence of Mr Abavana, a cabinet Minister. 6. Hand grenade thrown on 20 September 1962, near Lucas house, Accra, into a procession of members of the Convention People’s Party, the government party in connection with the celebration of “the President’s birth Day”, known as “Founder’s Day”, killing and injuring many people.
7. Hand grenade was thrown at Chorkor in Accra, on 6 November 1962, at a rally of the Convention People’s Party where some people were injured. 8. Hand grenade thrown into a crowd of merrymakers, after the close of general get-together of the Convention People’s Party members, at the stadium in commemoration of the positive action day that is 8 January 1963. 9. On 22 January 1963, when Teiko Tagoe, the first accused was arrested, he was armed with a hand grenade at Bukom square in Accra, at a rally held by the Convention People’s Party.”
Conclusion
While the officer’s faction of the indigenous bourgeoisie; which has now evolved into the National Democratic Congress sometimes disguises their hatred for the ideas and visions of Kwame Nkrumah, the political reactionary elites within the NPP are shamelessly open enemies of Nkrumahist ideas. Not only did they attack the very life of Kwame Nkrumah and the CPP members but to the extent that even now they are behind the movement to wipe Kwame Nkrumah’s ideas and memories from the Ghanaian history books.
The NPP-led government of Ghana today, is trying fruitlessly to make young Ghanaians forget who the founder of Ghana is, by attacking the national commemoration of Founder’s Day on Nkrumah’s birthday. They also approved the National education curriculum that intentionally vilified Kwame Nkrumah’s leadership and together with the NDC attacked Kwame Nkrumah’s economic policies.
The Ghanaian masses must realize that the NPP and NDC elites' calculated attacks on Nkrumah; the founder of Ghana, is an attack on the masses' interest, it is an attack that targets any sentiment meant to take power away from the elite class for the benefit of the poor Ghanaian masses.
The Ghanaian masses must come to the realization that attacks on Nkrumahism and Kwame Nkrumah’s legacy are a direct attack on them as the oppressed masses in Ghana. NPP and NDC are constantly attacking the Ghanaian masses' interest by attacking Nkrumahist ideas that seek to give the masses sovereign power and control over Ghana’s resources for their well-being.
We must therefore see the NPP and NDC as the class enemy of oppressed and impoverished masses, defend Kwame Nkrumah as our exemplary founder of Ghana, and attack the NPP AND NDC elitist ideology, that promote individualism, opportunism, loot and share of national assets and exploitation of the masses.
Reference: The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah, IN DEFENSE OF OSAGYEFO KWAME NKRUMAH, TAKE NKRUMAH BACK NOW!!! By PANIO,
