The late former Vice President Kow Nkensen Arkaah once said that some of our journalists pretend they know everything but they know nothing. I tend to agree with him. We now have a crop of leftists journalists who think their word should be what every body should accept. Any thing contrary to their views should be attacked with the greatest venom. We have three of these throwing tantrums because the unheard of has been said or done. They do not understand why Kotoka’s name should be honoured. One thing should be clear to them.
As much as Nkrumah’s name cannot be obliterated from our history, so also is Kotoka’s. What ever accusations they raised about Kotoka, like his smuggling diamonds, still remain as only accusations. They should find out from the elders of their Party, the CPP and they would confirm to them, if they would be truthful, that at the time of his overthrow, Nkrumah’s own party wanted him out. Ako Adjei, Cofie-Crabbe and Tawiah Adamafio who were arrested for the bombing at Kulungugu were close associates of Nkrumah and members of the CPP. If the President could even over rule court decisions as it happened in this case involving the three and resulting in Chief Justice Arku Korsah being dismissed and fleeing the country, we were left with limited options. While we are not advocating the glorification of any coup, circumstances of that time justified the 1966 coup. A lot of commentaries and analyses have been presented by eminent historians like Professor Adu Boahen and others to support this assertion. If the CIA sponsored that coup, it was we as Ghanaians who went to them crying for help, not the other way round. A desperate man would go to any Sherlock for a loan. What ever consequence as a result, was the interest we had to pay.
Those Ministers had every right to celebrate the anniversary in as much as it was not done in their official capacity as Ministers of State. In their capacity as individual citizens and as a party, there was nothing wrong. Supposing a relative was released from detention as a result of that coup, what stops them from celebrating such an occasion of such freedom? Ghana is a free country and citizens have choices. After all, nobody has stopped Rawlings and his NDC from celebrating June 4, and December 31 despite the fact that those days are not nationally recognized.
None of these three journalists pretending to know everything is 60 years old. That means they were not 18years at the time of Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966. It also goes to say that they were not enfranchised, thus not of voting age. Their childish ideas would not have been considered. The attention being drawn here is that their noises are just products of hear say and what they think they have read or studied from sources concerning Nkrumah. They never experienced the situations of those times as adults would. At best they might have been 'Young Pioneers'. To them, 'Nkrumah is our messiah', 'Nkrumah is our leader', and ‘Nkrumah never dies'. They were just kids, fed by some one else on whom they were also to spy if anything wrong would be said about the one who could ‘rain’ candies for them . They seem to be carrying those ideologies they were brain-washed with at the time into today. I would suggest they concentrate on issues of today which they have adequate knowledge and are experiencing; affecting us now and leave matured people of those times to deal with events of the past. Who cares about all those ‘isms’ now? The Soviet Union died with the Communism and all the ‘isms’. The Mugabe of today could be considered a saint compared to Nkrumah of those times. What justification would we have at this time to vilify Mugabe if we do not face the reality and truth about Nkrumah? Nkrumah may be adored internationally now, but the truth is that he was a tyrant at home and over ambitious internationally.
What we have grown to realize is that wounds heal with time. That is why we even have the Danquah/Busia tradition honouring the name of Nkrumah now. Something nobody thought ever possible. Let us make a definite effort to move on. If we have Kwesi Pratt dinning with the Rawlings now after all of his shouts and yells of the immediate past, we should know that if we allow ourselves, anybody through his selfish and egoistic tendencies could use us as the pedestal of achieving their parochial interest. If Kwaku Baako is crying foul now because his idol is being portrayed in a different light than what his perception is, or he feels somebody stepped on the wrong toe, he must know that with time, all the noises he is making about Rawlings will come to not too. The killings and atrocities would be accepted as ‘excesses of the times’. There will come a time another like him will rise to acclaim Rawlings as a saviour, irrespective of the blood on his hands.
These three almost always have something to say about everything. They seem to have answers to everything. One thing they have not given us answers to is how to repair the tattered image and ideologies of the Party, the CPP they profess to taut. If they are endowed with so much of ideas, it is a big indictment on their intellectual and organizational capabilities if they cannot even rescue and redeem the image of the heritage bequeathed to them. If Nkrumah should resurrect now, they would be crawling on their faces with shame if they were to appear before him. They would be ashamed because they are only making noises without deeds. If today we have Nkrumah’s own son abandoning ship, they should just accept that the CPP and all that it stood for is a doomed ship on the verge of sinking. The infantile noises cannot salvage it.
Let us see them stand up and see them reorganize the CPP as a vibrant Party. That is how we can accept them as credible, and of use on our political landscape. They should redirect their energies to woo their lot who are now mostly found in the NDC. Until then, their tantrums would be considered as the throws of a dead cockroach, to quote Professor Ansah of blessed memory.
On a final note, it is recommended that they should ‘live and let live’. They should realize that they are not the only ones with ‘mouths to speak.’ (moma hen nka bi, efi dze yaa bre). Ebei !
New Jersey, USA
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