RE: Bagbin: Ghana Had Founding Fathers

By Kwami Agbodza, Professor of Consciencism

My consciencist attention has been drawn to the above-titled piece, sourced to the Akyem tribalist-based Statesman, a notorious anti-united anti-progressive anti-self-determining Ghana newspaper, masquerading as a serious daily, published in the General News of Friday, 6 March 2009 on Ghanaweb. According to the Akyem tribalist-based Statesman, which has failed to become the mouthpiece of the Office of The President of Ghana, following the democratic rejection of the NPP by the majority of Ghanaians, except Akyems and Ashantis, as the debate on whether or not the decision to honour Ghana’s first President as ‘Founder’ of Ghana should be expanded to acknowledge the other so-called “Founding Fathers”, the words of Alban Bagbin clearly supports the collective recognition approach, whatever this really means. But then Statesman is not known for the quality of its clear thinking. Statesman, which is a notorious conservative anti-Ewe and anti-Fante paper quoted Mr. Bagbin at length. This included very serious false assertions about the leadership role played by the paid CIA Agent Joseph Boakye Danquah as “the spirit behind the struggle to the attainment of independence.” The falsehood continued that a CIA Agent, can you believe such open fraud, “is really one of the architects of the struggle for our independence. He was the talent, he was the thought, he was the moving spirit behind the whole scene and he contributed tremendously to the achievement of independence in 1957.”


This is worse than patently false and shows that Alban Bagbin knows very little about the history of Ghana and the African decolonisation movement and The African Revolution, which the CIA paid $13,000,000 to overthrow. Mr. Bagbin was said to be stressing some fraudulent collective in Parliament on February 28, 2007, that “I think together, led by some individuals including Dr. J B Danquah, our grandfathers did well by achieving independence for us.” Whereas he Bagbin and Statesman were those carried by their emotions like spoilt children, it is we Ghanaians who are being told not “allow emotions to becloud the gallant efforts of all our founding members.” Readers will notice the fraud being subtly perpetrated here by changing the word “founding fathers” to “founding members”, again whatever that really means! Mr. Bagbin is then said to have received support from other NDC MPs, including of all people, that George Kuntu-Blankson who noted, “It will interest the House to know that history is made by people but it is not a single individual that makes history.” Surely even African children know family is big and at least it took two – father and mother – to create their history.


The Mfantsiman East MP, we are told, stressed that the foundation of Ghana was a “collective effort,” as if we Ghanaians did not already know that. He then warned, I could not believe it when I read it, we are told, against, what he called, the “singling out” of an individual’s efforts. This coming from an MP, who cannot tell the Ghanaian electorate which Manifesto they really voted for when they are about to hold the NDC to account. Kuntu-Blankson is also reported to have stressed, like Alban Bagbin, some fraudulent “collective” as if we Ghanaians do not understand the difference between Leadership and Management; namely, that because there were many managers in the decolonisation process including nation wreckers such as JB Danquah, that somehow that makes them all leaders. Where on this God's earth, did JB Danquah ever LEAD any independence movement in the precise term of the word lead? When you fill a House with historical illiterates who have not even imbibed F.K Buah, this is what happens. The notorious falsehoods reported by the Statesman included quotes from the bitter CPP- defeated former Jomoro MP Mr. Lee Ocran who added to the founding fraud by now changing Kuntu-Blankson's term “Member” to “fathers” as if a member is necessarily a father or a leader for that matter. Lee then increased the fraudulent confusion by making a popular twist, by going beyond fathers, to include “ordinary men” like the striking railway workers of Sekondi-Tarkoradi and the roles played by various people and the Ako-Adjeis in the fight for independence.


To show how absurd this LEADERSHIP amplification is, let us note that Lee forgot to add that if Nyaniba had not given birth to Kwame, if a goldsmith had not impregnated Nyaniba and if the Catholic Church had not employed him as a teacher....(all can add their own)...he would not have come to the Gold Coast to lead a decolonisation process with the clarion call “Self Government Now”. Indeed we could go on and on to include Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who signed the Gold Coast independence Act and Sir Charles Noble Arden-Clarke, 11 August 1949–6 March 1957. It was the latter according to his memoirs who convinced the Chief's of The Northern Territories to join the coming independent country to be called Ghana. Surely the two latter also played a role in the independence of Ghana. But can anyone seriously say they all LED Ghana to independence, not in Adu's delusional 1949 (see below), but in 1957? But this is the fraudulent nonsense we are being fed by non-historians, something that even the late Professor Adu Boahen never did as he staunchly continued to defend himself until he left us, namely, that he gave Nkrumah his due as one who led Ghana to independence. The fraud was continued by The Statesman quoting the former MP for Abuakwa North, J B Danquah Adu, a descendant of the discredited CIA operative Dr. J.B. Danquah, who, in January 1960 supposedly said the following: “When independence was achieved the CPP has not been formed. The inauguration of independence took place when CPP was in power, but the priest who baptised a child is not by any chance the child’s parents.” Granted that mysteriously by itself without the agency of Nkrumah's leadership, “the country had already been brought “to the threshold of full self-government” as a result of the Watson Commission (1948) and the subsequent Coussey Committee Constitutional Report (1949), which paved the way for the 1951 elections.”; and granted further that “In 1948, the Watson Commission, set up after the February 28 massacre and riots, recommended that the people of Ghana were fit to achieve independence within ten years,” did that mean they were therefore independent already. Granted even further that “Paa Grant and others of the UGCC drew up the plan for Ghana’s liberation, namely, “to ensure that in the shortest possible time,… the control and direction of the Government of the country shall pass into the hands of the people,…”, I ask all fair-minded people to tell me, by what stretch of the imagination can it be said that “Nkrumah ceremonially declared Ghana independent in 1957”? There is an 8 years difference and independence was not given to us, Ghanaians fought for it whatever the plans and documents said. And by what stretch of the imagination, I ask fair-minded Ghanaians who elected President John Mills a former Young Pioneer, can it be said that the declaration of independence was ceremonial when it required legal (ratification by the House of Commons etc) and political (another election for the British Government to agree to cede colonial control) processes? Such wicked distortions of history does a disservice even to the liars, especially when they are paid CIA agents.


We are investigating whether the editor of Statesman is another CIA Agent and shall let you all know. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_People's_Party”, “The CPP was formed in 1949 by Kwame Nkrumah to campaign for the independence of the Gold Coast. It ruled Ghana from 1957 to 1966. During the latter part of the CPP rule, the constitution was changed to make it the only legal party in Ghana, making the nation a one-party state. The party was banned after the February 24, 1966 coup d'état by the National Liberation Council.” But the independence of Ghana was on 6th March 1957. So by what twisted CIA-paid Danquah-Akyem logic does 6th March 1957 come before any date readers may want to choose, in 1949? But this descendant of the discredited CIA operative went on to state that “President Mills is free to honour Nkrumah’s exceptional contribution to African and, even, Ghanaian politics with as many holidays as the President likes. “But what he is not free to do and can never be acceptable is to call any such day ‘Founder’s Day’.” The fraud was thickened with his assertion that “Ghana, as an independent state, has many fathers and to give that honour to Nkrumah alone would do great injustice to our history, the people who made that history and to the hallowed idea of patriotism for now and generations to come.” Does that include Queen Elizabeth and Sir Arden Clarke too? Even Nkrumah himself, please check the independence speech – greater than any speech the First Black President of the United States of America Barack Hussein Obama has and will ever make, thanked many; these are Nkrumah's own words: “And yet again I want to take the opportunity to thank the chiefs and people of this country, the youth, the farmers, the women who have so nobly fought and won this battle. Also I want to thank the valiant ex-service men who have so co-operated with me in this mighty task of freeing our country from foreign rule and imperialism.”


So what new thing have the likes of Alban Bagbin, J.B. Danquah Adu, Statesman, Lee Ocran added to what we know about the independence of Ghana. As Charles Heyman MV, once told me, the only people Nkrumah forgot to mention were workers in name. But workers too are pat of the people of Ghana Nkrumah thanked. Indeed Nkrumah even thanked God: “But today, may I call upon you all - that on this great day, let us all remember that nothing in the world can be done unless it's had the purport and support of God.”

We have looked through the CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA 1992; nowhere in that document, “the supreme law of Ghana”, does it say that “Ghana, as an independent state, has many fathers”. Indeed, it says “ THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA”, and continues, in chapter one, article one, that “The Sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution.” Kwame Nkrumah a thorough Republican would have rejected the notion of a Republic having a father. Anyone can investigate and tell us if our First Republican Constitution acknowledges the notion of “fathers” in a republican state. Anyone can democratically object to a “Founders Day” for Nkrumah but please do not confuse yourself and all of us by talking of “members” and “fathers” as if Ghana has a father. I am telling you all today that Ghana has no “Father”. The President of Ghana is not our “Father”. We do, I repeat, we do not, in a republic, have anyone greater than the people in whom rest sovereignty. Parliament has no sovereignty; sovereignty in Ghana does not reside in Parliament. It resides in the people of Ghana.


I am therefore calling on all Ghanaians including former and current Legislators to stop making treasonable statements and to please stop misleading Ghana. Yes there were millions of political agents of diverse descriptions. This is not in dispute. Nevertheless, there was only one LEADER who led The African Revolution that led to the independence of Ghana in 1957 and other African colonial states 1960 to South Africa 1994. He is Kwame Nkrumah, who laboured and suffered, to lead his people into the land of freedom; he is the political economic redeemer and the champion of liberty and of human equality. Lets salute him fellow Ghanaians, the nation's founder Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah; may God Bless him, Ghana's Show boy, Africa's Great Son, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. May God also bless his loving daughter Samia Nkrumah as she prepares to lead Ghana into a new progressive stage, after Mills the Young Pioneer, in which the resources of Ghana will be be used once again, as it was under her father, for the benefit of all Ghanaians and not for only a minority as the liberal NDC leadership (1992-2000) or a privileged few as the conservative NPP leadership (2000-2008) both have done till 2009; may she be supported, helped and funded by CPP progressives and all Nkrumaists irrespective of political party who believe in the vision of her father as spelt out in his independence speech on 6th March 1957. Forward Ever.


Background: Nkrumah's Independence Speech (http://www.cppuk.org); Contributed by laarnoo:


"At long last, the battle has ended!


And thus Ghana, your beloved country is free forever.


And yet again I want to take the opportunity to thank the chiefs and people of this country, the youth, the farmers, the women who have so nobly fought and won this battle.

Also I want to thank the valiant ex-service men who have so co-operated with me in this mighty task of freeing our country from foreign rule and imperialism.


And as I pointed out... I made it quite clear that from now on – today – we must change our attitudes, our minds, we must realise that from now on, we are no more a colonial but a free and independent people.


But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work.


That new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation.


Our own African identity


As I said in the assembly just minutes ago, I made a point that we are going to create our own African personality and identity. It's the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own own battles.

But today, may I call upon you all - that on this great day, let us all remember that nothing in the world can be done unless it's had the purport and support of God.


We have won the battle and we again re-dedicate ourselves ... Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.


Let us now fellow Ghanaians, let us now ask for God's blessing and for only two seconds in your thousands and millions, I want to ask you to pause only for one minute and give thanks to almighty God for having led us through our difficulties, imprisonments, hardships and suffering to have brought us to the end of our trouble today.


One minute silence.


Ghana is free forever and here I will ask the band to play the Ghana national anthem." Reshaping Ghana's destiny.


I am depending upon the millions of the country, and the chiefs and people, to help me to reshape the destiny of this country.

We are prepared to pick it up and make it a nation that will be respected by every nation in the world.


We know we are going to have difficult beginnings, but again, I'm relying upon your support, I'm relying upon your hard work.


Seeing you in this… it doesn't matter how far my eye goes, I can see that you are here in your millions and my last warning to you is that you are to stand firm behind us so that we can prove to the world that when the African is given a chance he can show the world that he is somebody!


We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!


___________________


Note on Writer: Kwami Agbodza is a member of CPP. He loves his nation Ghana and prays that God will make Ghana a nation great and strong to defend the cause of freedom and truth, including historical truth, in a united and strong Africa, our homeland as black people. Kwami can be reached on kwami_agbodza@yahoo.co.uk; he has a discussion group that discusses Kwame Nkrumah's ideas: theKnforum@yahoogroups.com.