TALK BY PROF. YAKUBU SAAKA (FORMER DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER OF GHANA) SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES (SOAS), UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, APRIL 29, 2006
Introductory Comments
I would like to sincerely thank the Friends of Africa and the Kwame Nkrumah Students Society of SOAS for inviting me to participate in this event. Most especially, I would like to acknowledge Comrade Explo Kofi Nani and his indefatigable revolutionary colleagues for consistently seeking to include me in this most important struggle to save the soul of Africa. I should also let you know that I am deeply honored and privileged to be sharing the stage with one of my all-time heroes ? The Honorable Mr. Tony Benn. As a young student of Political Science both in Ghana and the United States, I was always impressed with the very principled positions he took on the most important political issues confronting our world. And even though the gray hairs that I?m now sporting tell me I?m getting older and therefore ought to be wiser, I must admit my admiration for the man has not changed in the least. So, Mr. Benn, permit me to publicly express my gratitude to you for being such a wonderful influence on my life.
About a year ago when I participated in a similar event here in London, some members of the audience privately complained about my being overly academic in my presentation. Perhaps that was what informed Comrade Explo?s suggestion that I should concentrate on the practical aspects of the issue we are examining. So really, my main mission today is to share with you, in the simplest way possible, some of my views on how, as committed people, we should be going about this business of revitalizing and completing the unfinished Nkrumaist agenda.
A Man Ahead Of His Time
It is almost commonplace these days to iterate the point that the Osagyefo was indeed a man well before his time. Since his overthrow in February 1966, whatever political progress we have seen in Ghana has, to be honest, been quite limited. And the reason for this, in my view, is that no leader since then has had the capacity and courage to be the visionary that he was. But to be candid, even though this vision was indubitably towering, it was in essence quite simple. All he wanted to do was to build a better world for Africans and all oppressed peoples. As we can see from the recently declassified files of the Central Intelligence Agency of the U.S.A., this proposition did not sit well with some powerful governments of the world at the time. They found it threatening because, in their view, it was not yet time for certain groups of people to be free of their tutelage or control. The price Dr. Nkrumah had to pay for daring to challenge the status quo and existing hierarchies was a forcible removal from office. Getting rid of the Osagyefo has, for the main part, led to the creation of a political culture in Ghana that is essentially instrumentalist. Even when regimes have begun with the best of intentions, they have, most often, quickly degenerated into governments whose main preoccupation has been to squabble over who should be the chief beneficiaries of the spoils of office. Rather than being considered shameful or shameless, it is now a badge of honor in many political circles in Ghana to have the acumen to divert huge chunks of public wealth into one?s own pocket or for one?s personal use.
In order for Ghana to get back on track I have no doubt that it will be necessary to re-establish a truly articulated Nkrumaist party with the potential to realize the vision of the Osagyefo.
Nkrumaist Unity
Establishing an effective unified Nkrumaist party is a project that must start and end in Ghana. Unfortunately, the attempts that have been made in the last dozen years or so have ended in futility. Ever since Ghana returned to constitutional rule in 1992, all manner of real and purported Nkrumaists have made efforts to make this unity idea a reality. Even though a variety of reasons may be used to explain why all these endeavors have proven to be so difficult, the one that has the greatest resonance for me is the unabashed commitment to perfidy by some of our leaders. For some strange, reason a good number of highly regarded leaders of our group have found it expedient to organize our people for the benefit of other parties. This has consistently happened as far back as 1992 when the followers of perhaps the largest Nkrumaist party (NCP) found out in the 11th hour that their leaders had been organizing them all along ostensibly to enable Jerry Rawlings and his party (NDC) to become the first ruling regime of the 4th Republic. A variation on this theme is being played out in the relationship between some leading Nkrumaists and the current President (John Kufour) and his ruling regime ? NPP. From where I stand, something is not quite ?kosher? about the presumption that the NPP would willingly assist the CPP to become a formidable party. The only way to develop our party is to do it ourselves.
Too Many Chiefs
Another reason this project has become so intractable has to do with the phenomenon known as ?too many Chiefs chasing after too few Indians.? For the portion of the population we can currently claim as legitimate followers, the number of people who want to be supreme leader of the party is just too large. It does not make sense for every leader of every tiny Nkrumaist group (and most of them are exactly that ? tiny) to assume that he ought to be the over-all leader. In some cases, some of these leaders are so comfortable in their tiny fiefdoms that they are not even genuinely keen on the idea of a larger united Nkrumaist party. The possibility that they might lose the recognition that they currently enjoy, should we come together, may be too frightening for others, hence their reticence. Above all, however, the reluctance about being fully engaged in the project boils down to self-interest. They would rather feed off of the crumbs from the table of their patrons than fight for their own. And this is exactly what Dr. Nkrumah warned us against over half a century ago.
The Way Forward
Now that we have acknowledged the difficulty inherent in the formation of a grand united Nkrumaist front in Ghana what then do we think is the way forward, if we still believe the enterprise is both important and necessary? In the first place, I think it is possible for us to achieve the goal without necessarily having everyone on board from the very beginning. Indeed, I believe the major reason we are having all these problems is because we are trying to carry along all manner of people who are really not committed to the mission. All of these squabbles over names and symbols are contrivances being engineered to delay the process. Whenever I have had the occasion to meet with fellow-travelers, both at home and abroad, I have insisted that at this stage of this revivalist endeavor it makes the most sense to concentrate on the big picture. The Nkrumaist vision is not about names and symbols but about creating the space that will enable us as a political group to raise the living standards of our people and to struggle on behalf of all oppressed peoples. We really cannot afford to wait for stragglers who are seriously weighting us down.
History and circumstance have provided us a propitious moment. This is the right time to make the reclamation of the Nkrumaist legacy a top priority. I say this because everywhere one goes in Ghana these days, the refrain is ?It is now your time? ? meaning, they have been so disillusioned by the performance or lack thereof of the current regime and the one before that they are praying the Nkrumaists will make themselves viable alternatives to the two. The miserable performances that we have put up in recent bye-elections clearly indicate we have not yet arrived. But rather than see this simply as a reflection of failure, we should consider it an object lesson in real politics, namely that we will only be taken seriously if we truly organize ourselves as a united group.
Now a brief comment on the leadership question. In spite of my earlier criticism of its bloated size, I have to say that, present company excluded, some of the names on the list of people supposedly vying for the leadership of the yet-to-be-formed party are not only intriguing but quite distinguished. Here I am referring to people like: Dr. Kwabena Duffour (former Governor of the Bank of Ghana), Professor Akosah (The Director-General of the Ghana Medical Services), Dr. Kwesi Ndoum (Minister for Public Sector Reform in the current NPP government), Dr. Edward Mahama (Leader of the PNC) and Osahene (Major, Rtd.) Boakye Djan (former Spokesperson of the AFRC). The preponderance of Doctors on the list is not lost on us. Who better to carry the candle originally lit by Dr. Nkrumah than another Doctor? All kidding aside, the caliber of leaders who want to put themselves up in the Nkrumaist group is clearly a superior one and will better or at least equally match that of any other political group in the country. The real problem with this struggle for leadership is that some of the people are coming to it with a sense of entitlement. Because we are a national and mass-based movement, I think leadership should only be available to people who have earned it in the old-fashioned political way. That is, it should come only to those willing to work throughout the length and breadth of the country to genuinely earn the trust of the people. Above all, potential leaders ought to be humble and honest enough to allow the system and process to determine who eventually gets the nod.
Cashing In the Chips
Because of the tremendous work the Osagyefo did in his lifetime to earn recognition as a world-renowned statesman, Nkrumaists in Ghana have a certain international advantage to which other political groups in the country cannot lay claim. One of the ways in which we can help ourselves in this reclamation project is by reconnecting with extant international coalitions with which Nkrumah had some association, or by teaming up with groups that are favorably disposed to his brand of politics. As we all know, one of the huge obstacles we continue to face in this endeavor is paucity of funds and sometimes, of fundraising skills. By teaming up with like-minded groups or people who like what we are doing, there is a good chance we will eventually be able to help ourselves in this area.
Equally important in this discussion of what we can do internationally to better our present condition of pecuniary ill-health (or is it dis-ease?) is what we can do in Africa itself. Again, thanks to the good works of the Osagyefo, there are very few doors in many parts of the continent that his name will open for us. This is particularly true of several countries in Southern Africa. Many of the current leaders and several more in leadership positions were direct or indirect recipients of our former leader?s largesse and/or goodwill and certainly will not be immune to a consideration of a reasonable request from us. The key to any success in such overtures is effective organization. In order words, the only way they will treat our requests seriously is if we are indeed a demonstrable and truly united Nkrumaist party.
Another area of support which we can tap is what is referred to as the New African Diaspora. As followers of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah it is important for us to maintain our linkages with all people of African descent wherever they may be. It was Nkrumah who first made real the idea of African nationality, which was initially articulated by the great West Indian cum Liberian scholar/statesman, Edward Wilmot Blyden. Rechristened by Dr. Nkrumah as African Personality, it became a process by which people of African descent from wherever could identify with their Africaness in a variety of ways including physically relocating to Africa ? preferably at that time, to Ghana. The positions taken by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois and Mr. George Padmore in this regard were two prominent examples of how this was actually acted upon. Both died as citizens of Africa in Ghana.
Concluding Comment
The one thought that undergirds all of the comments I have made in this brief talk is my implicit belief in the desirability of reigniting and actualizing the formation of a united Nkrumaist party. Although my preferred name for this party is CPP ? that is Convention Peoples Party, I have to reiterate the point I made earlier. For me the significant issue in this debate should not be about names and symbols but about the big idea, i.e. attaining the power that will enable us build a better world for Ghanaians, all African people and all oppressed peoples. Although the window of opportunity for us to arrive at this point keeps narrowing by the minute, I also know that somehow we will eventually get there.
Aluta Continua
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