– A TRIBUTE TO THE VISIONARY WHO
LIBERATED AND SHAPED MODERN AFRICA
By: Joe Ricketts-Arthur
The terrorist attack on the United States of America on 11th September 2001 was an
event that shaped the course of world history and quickly re-defined the degree of
ruthlessness to which terrorism in whatever form must be dealt with. It also
brought into sharp focus the terrorist attacks which Ghanaians witnessed in horror
during Kwame Nkrumah’s presidency.
On that fateful day in September 2001, what was initially thought to be a mere
accident turned out to be the biggest terrorist attack of all times in a single day.
In the early hours of 11th September a “STEEL BIRD” crashed into one of the
World Trade Organization’s twin towers in New York setting it ablaze. Almost
immediately the news of the accident spread all over the world like wild bushfires,
and as thousands of people had turned their television sets to international news
channels and were watching the aftermath of the accident they were shocked by
another scene which they awfully watched “live”. A second steel bird from
nowhere rammed into the other twin tower setting that also ablaze. The first
crash, perhaps, could be an accident, but was the second crash an accident within an
accident? As the world was wondering what could really be happening, the third
accident left no doubt in peoples’ mind that the US, the mightiest
country on earth was under siege of an organised terrorism. We were told, this
time, that the almighty Pentagon was in flames. A third plane, it was reported,
had crashed into it. We were also told that a fourth plane had crashed somewhere
near Pennsylvania killing all on board.
In summary, it was the day on which the whole world was caught in a state of frenzy
as it watched US, the world’s mightiest state, apparently devastated by multiple
terrorist attacks that would sooner than later draw the authorities into what
eventually became known as “THE WAR ON TERRORISM”. The entire country was
turned into a state of “Shock and panic” as it was hardly known which building
was going to be the next target. A state of emergency was declared while most
flights were cancelled or redirected. Activities in some part of the US were
brought to a halt. Nearly 3,000 people perished in the attacks and many who
survived will never come back to their normal lives as a result of the injuries and
the trauma they went through. It was a terrible sight as the earth stood still and
watched people slaughtered in their numbers – yeah, a very sad memory to remember.
The response to these attacks was very swift. Forces, led by the US, were drawn
from NATO military alliance that chased the suspected terrorists from over land and
sea, over mountains and in the valleys. The ruling government of Afghanistan, the
Taliban, which was accused of harboring the suspected architect of the 9/11 attack,
was demolished in no time by the might of America’s “Show Man”, President
George Bush. House to house searches were made; from Kabul to Helmand Province,
from Afghanistan to Pakistan, from Saudi to Yemen and, of course, from everywhere to
everywhere all in search of the terrorists and their leader. Amendments were
quickly made to laws and constitutions in the US to enable the authorities detain
suspects indefinitely without trial. Suspects captured in Afghanistan and
elsewhere were brought to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where they were subjected to all
forms of torture. Most of them have been detained for almost 10
years without trial and nothing has been done to address the issue of US’ human
right abuses.
If the terrorist attack had occurred somewhere in Africa the same western powers
would have argued that once the people who launched the attack had all died in the
act, it would be illegal to arrest any other suspect. Today, there is a clear
turn-around that has clearly vindicated Kwame Nkrumah who clamped down on those
terrorists who hid behind political parties to unleash deadly attacks on innocent
Ghanaian citizens.
Back here in Ghana, similar terrorist attacks took place during Nkrumah’s regime
though in a relatively smaller scale. However, the motive was obviously the same –
to kill or destroy innocent Ghanaian citizens who followed Kwame Nkrumah. Our
democracy which had inspired and was the envy of other African states still under
colonialism, and was on steady ground after the 6th March 1957 independence
declaration was soon to be “tested” by the opposition. Innocent Ghanaian
citizens were slaughtered through constant bomb attacks orchestrated by the leaders
of the opposition parties. The only crime that these innocent victims committed
was that in three successive pre-independence elections (1951, 1954 and 1956) they
had rejected the UGCC/UP and their leaders in favour of the CPP and its young
charismatic leader, Kwame Nkrumah whose place of birth, according to them, was just
a mere “bethlehemic” cottage in the western province of Ghana
called Nkroful.
Their election defeats at the hands of Nkrumah and his CPP gave way to hatred, and
hatred also gave way to all sorts of criminal atrocities which they perpetrated
against him and his followers. They felt that they only had the legitimate right
to become the custodians of the country’s destiny, and therefore things should
“either” go their way or nobody else’s way. And when things rather went
contrary to their wishes, “all-hell-broke-loose”. They declared an evil war
against Nkrumah and attacked him from all fronts by resorting to various forms of
atrocities such as political violence, bomb attacks, shootings, killings, arson,
rumour-mongering, fabrication of lies, sabotage, circulation of seditious handouts
and even betrayal of the country as a whole by working for the CIA to destabilize
the country and bring all activities to a halt. Whoever became Nkrumah’s
follower would share the same fate with him.
For example, during the 1954 elections the opposition leaders abandoned their quest
for self-rule, and instead targeted the CPP and its followers and killed many of
them including Krobo Edusei’s sister. They behaved like a team of footballers
who had conceded many goals, and in the face of heavy defeat at the hands of their
opponents, they abandoned the game and desperately targeted their opponents. Their
slogan was just simple; “once we have failed, NKRUMAH should also fail; once we
have lost, NKRUMAH should lose as well. We either win or nobody else wins -- as
simple as that. That mind-set and the subsequent acts that followed marked the
beginning of the “PULL HIM DOWN” culture which has permeated every fabric of our
society and has become an imprint of our national identity till this very day - a
culture which, if not addressed sooner than later, will continue to undermine our
progress as a people and as a nation.
The opposition leaders kept things boiling for Nkrumah so much to the extent that by
the time he instituted the one-party state they had reduced the country to a mere
“State of Bombocracy”, intimidation, fear, upheaval, shock, anxiety, uncertainty
and anguish, and by their dirty politics, had eventually become the
“EXECUTIONERS or TERMINATORS” of the very democracy which they themselves
professed to stand for and which Nkrumah sacrificed his life to win for them.
Just a year after our independence a plot by RR Amponsah, Major Ahweatey, M.K.
Apaloo and others to assassinate Nkrumah at the airport on the day of his state
visit to India was uncovered. Other assassination plots and bomb attacks were soon
to follow. Nkrumah himself survived 7 major assassination plots in addition to
various countless minor ones. These include the Accra Sports Stadium bombing, the
Amatewie shooting incident, the Kulungugu bombing and the Flag Staff House bomb
attack.
It had never been Nkrumah’s intention to pass the Preventive Detention Act, ban
opposition parties and declare Ghana a one-party state but the spate of these deadly
attacks, assassination attempts and other behaviour by the opposition shortly
after our independence were enough justifications for his actions. The actions
Nkrumah took against the terrorists, after all, did not come anywhere close to what
George Bush and Tony Blair did when US and UK were bombed on 11/9/2001 and 7/7/2005
respectively.
The first time I came face-to-face with the arguments over political-detention
versus bomb-attacks was when the 1979 presidential elections failed to produce an
outright winner and Dr Hilla Limann of PNP and Mr. Victor Owusu of PFP were to
contest the run-off. I had voted in the first round for the youthful and
charismatic presidential novice, Colonel Bernasko and his party ACP, but as the
Oguaa Colonel could not make it to the second round I had to choose between Limann
and Owusu. It was around this time that some propaganda publications by Victor
Owusu’s PFP (including a publication featuring a 5-year grand daughter of
Obetsebi-Lamptey) surfaced claiming that “a vote for Limann means a vote for
Preventive Detention Act and one-party state”. The PNP’s response and an
earlier response from Professor Francis Nkrumah cited the various bomb attacks and
other atrocities committed by the opposition as the reasons for Nkrumah’s actions.
They
also exposed Victor Owusu for his outrageous remarks against a Ghanaian tribe.
This, to some extent, turned the tides in favour of Limann. Many observers
believed PFP’s publications to be a political suicide.
As an up-and-coming youth I was quite amazed at how actions and inactions of past
politicians could influence our 1979 voting pattern. The bomb attacks and
outrageous statements, and how badly they can affect one’s chances of winning
elections. Having just recovered from a strange and mysterious sickness that
plagued me for nearly 4 years (starting from 4th June, 1975) and having also been
involved in a fatal motor accident near Apedwa shortly after the presidential
run-off I felt time was now ripe for me to put politics aside and go on
“rocking”. However, what I saw 13 years later forever changed my perception of
the violence that took place during the Nkrumah days. Not only did it restore my
interest in active politics but it has also made me a “living witness” (not an
eye witness) to some of these deadly attacks. I happened to be at the official
launching of the Nkrumah Memorial Park on the 1st July 1992 with my entire family
just to relieve ourselves of the boredom that had engulfed us for the past 6
months. After the function had closed and JJ Rawlings and his convoy had left the
park my attention was caught by some camera flashes. As I approached the scene I
saw reporters who had flocked around two wheel-ridden elderly women who had
multiple scars all over their faces. These women who were victims of some of these
bomb attacks that killed hundreds of innocent Ghanaians had come to the park to
appeal to JJ Rawlings to restore their maintenance allowances which were stopped
after the overthrow of the CPP government. What horrified me most were their
facial scars. “So the story about the bomb attacks was true!”, I said to
myself. I became speechless for a while as I gazed at the faces of the
unfortunate victims, for I could not believe that people who called themselves
“DEMOCRATS” could unleash such barbaric atrocities against their fellow
countrymen.
Could they describe themselves as fellow Ghanaians with care, respect and love for
their people? My whole day was ruined by what I saw and to this day I cannot
come to grips with it. So many questions started knocking on my mind but the
most prominent among them was “If I were a brother or a father of one of these
women or one of the victims who were killed what would I do? Or better still, if
I were President Nkrumah in those days what action would I have taken against the
perpetrators of these crimes? Some few hours earlier Professor Francis Nkrumah in
his speech had said, “my father bears no one any grudge”, but I did not really
know how he would have responded to a question as to “what he would have done to
these perpetrators or terrorists if he had been in his own father’s (Kwame
Nkrumah) shoes in those days, more so if he had on that very day seen those two
elderly ladies?
As I walked quietly away to join my family I had no doubt in my mind that “these
bomb attacks might have remained Nkrumah’s dilemma” throughout his presidency.
They were atrocities which adversely shaped the course of Ghana’s democratic
process, its industrial and economic aspirations in those days. They were
atrocities which caused him to institute many drastic measures – the very measures
which made these same “bombocrats” turn round and accuse him of being a
dictator. But the question that still hang around my neck like an albatross was
“If I were President Nkrumah what action would I have taken in those days against
those terrorists? Similarly if you, my dear readers, were in the same Kwame
Nkrumah’s shoes what action would you have taken against those terrorists? And
what about yiew, and yiew and yiew?
Kwame Nkrumah left behind excellent records which speak for themselves today. He
left behind rich legacies which we are all proud of. He left behind great hopes,
visions and aspiration which Africans have to fulfill. His influence on Africa and
the world is evident today. Even though he was not faultless by virtue of being
an ordinary human being he had the deep-seated conviction, love hope and
determination to bring about long lasting positive change, respect and progress to
his people. All the great things that he did will forever live after him. His
development projects are landmarks which are all visible today. He was a great
leader, a catalyst, a visionary, a prophet, a redeemer, a messiah, a national hero
and an international icon. He succeeded where others failed and won victories
where others succumbed. He did so many things which are too numerous for this
short tribute to catalogue. And as we celebrate the 38th anniversary
of his death, let us all bear in mind that through him God walked across the
continent of AFRICA and liberated HER from the claws of colonialism without “the
African” noticing it.
Long Live, Africa! Long Live, Ghana!
Nkrumah Never Dies!
Forward Ever!
