The best coup d’etat in Ghana. Part one

Read Article

Comments (81)

This article is closed for comments.

Read Comments Comments (81)

Kweku Boateng Jnr. 11 years ago

What nonsense ! From that coup came 13 January 1972 coup, June 4 1979 and 31st coup. Look where we are? It was financed by the Americans, West Germans and Britain. Ghana's day of shame, 24 February.

What nonsense ! From that coup came 13 January 1972 coup, June 4 1979 and 31st coup. Look where we are? It was financed by the Americans, West Germans and Britain. Ghana's day of shame, 24 February.
CARDINAL 11 years ago

CIA coup or not, 1969 coup was called for. We did not fight for independence from white colonialists to be enslaved by a black dictator declaring himself President for life with a one Party rule.

Nkrumah is the only Presid ...
read full comment

CIA coup or not, 1969 coup was called for. We did not fight for independence from white colonialists to be enslaved by a black dictator declaring himself President for life with a one Party rule.

Nkrumah is the only President in history without a Vice President because he has a plan to make Ghana a fiefdom with his sons penciled in as his succesors.

Ghana came out better because we would have been like Zimbabwe. Mugabe took a play from Nkrumaism and look at what happened to that country.

Nkrumah was the only President in our history to assume the Presidency with a lot of money to spend and he ran through that money with super sonic speed and by 1964, Ghana was broke. Ghana by then was depending on Britain and USA to finance our budget and the populace Started queing for basic things like soap, sugar and other essential amenities, something that was foreign to the people then.

The 1969 coup was the only legitimate coup in our history as Nkrumah closed all legitimate avenues to vote him out if the people wish to do so.
Yaw Antobam, Bronx, NY 11 years ago

Since you justified the 1966 (not 1969) coup, let me justify the 31st Dec 1981 one. It was the best thing that happened to our country. Coups to end all coups. Set Ghana off to a democratic path that allow the likes of you ...
read full comment

Since you justified the 1966 (not 1969) coup, let me justify the 31st Dec 1981 one. It was the best thing that happened to our country. Coups to end all coups. Set Ghana off to a democratic path that allow the likes of you to talk free. How do you like that, CARDINAL? It makes your blood boil right? Exactly. You can't justify the overthrow of any civilian govt.
And please don't come back with PNDC atrocities. Some of us saw what your 1966 heroes did when they took power. Ask the children and grand children of Bawah, Nkrumah's security chief, ask the family of Boye Moses ....

We all state our opinions and points of view based on where we stand.

Jerry was right to stage 31st Dec, deal with it !!!
CARDINAL 11 years ago

Your problem is that you don't understand democracy despite living in Bronx. You said the December 1981 coup ended coups and set Ghana on Democratic rule. Do you know that the Limann government that was removed in December 19 ...
read full comment

Your problem is that you don't understand democracy despite living in Bronx. You said the December 1981 coup ended coups and set Ghana on Democratic rule. Do you know that the Limann government that was removed in December 1981 was democratically elected and Ghanaians would have had the chance to vote Limann out in 1983 if they wanted to do so unlike Nkrumah who took that right away from Ghanaians?

You people sound like illiterates when you talk about 1981 coup as giving us democracy as if Limann was not democratically elected.
Yaw Antobam, Bronx, NY 11 years ago

My contribution is tongue-in-cheek for you to see how your ideological position has blinded you. You are just hiding behind "your facts" to hide your blindness. One pesron's democracy is another person's dictatorship.

Cou ...
read full comment

My contribution is tongue-in-cheek for you to see how your ideological position has blinded you. You are just hiding behind "your facts" to hide your blindness. One pesron's democracy is another person's dictatorship.

Coups don't respect how a government was elected. In your book, democracy exists only when your side has the upper hand.

Glad you did not mention atrocities because, your side historically has been noted for their violence.

I mentioned 1981 as being the coup that ended all coups, that is a fact. That cycle of undemocratic removal of govts in Ghana ended after 1981. That process led to Ghanaians fashing for ourselves the current dispensation, no matter how imperfect, which is better than some abongo boys coming to either liberate, redeem or whatever else they profess to come and help us with.

All I am saying is that if you justify 1966, we also have the right to justify 1981. Insulting my literacy will not change anything. I have the right to my "illiterate" view. I guess that is democracy, too.
CARDINAL 11 years ago

Sorry, I over estimated your intelligence because you are using idioms you don't even understand. Do you know what tongue in cheek means?

I still stand by my point that 1981 coup was an armed robbery camouflaged by Rawli ...
read full comment

Sorry, I over estimated your intelligence because you are using idioms you don't even understand. Do you know what tongue in cheek means?

I still stand by my point that 1981 coup was an armed robbery camouflaged by Rawlings and usurped the power of the electorate who could have voted Limann out in 1983 if they so wished.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

It is such balderdash that has kept out Country lagging in any developmental phase among the World's most endowed Nations! Yep, only those who prefer being swarmed with imported Sardines and Eggs for "Kyebomu" that still clai ...
read full comment

It is such balderdash that has kept out Country lagging in any developmental phase among the World's most endowed Nations! Yep, only those who prefer being swarmed with imported Sardines and Eggs for "Kyebomu" that still claim Nkrumah's infrastructural program was needless and waste of money.

You concede here that Nkrumah was depending on the West to finance our budget. But do you know how that came to be? With the massive developmental projects planned ahead of time, Nkrumah had sought assurances from those Western Nations that they would help by making credit available when needed to accomplish the projects. It turned out it was a trap for him to spend most of our Foreign Exchange reserves so quickly and then betray him with rejection.

Besides, while I strongly disapprove of Nkrumah's dictatorial tendencies and the quizzical undemocratic President-for-life, the murderous behavior of the Opposition which started even before Nkrumah became President, and was meant to assassinate him, was in most part what drove him to such extremes. If the UP/NLM had not taken to such terrorist tactics, Nkrumah would have had little to no excuse to become iron-fisted.

We have heard these holier-than-thou vilification of Nkrumah and the denial of the essence of his developmental projects for far too long. But those are all part of the white-washing crap that the NLC, propped and coached by the CIA, fed the Country to justify the Coup.

People are enlightened enough to know when others conveniently select data to establish their view on issues, like this Author, Dr. Sarfo Adjei, has done. I bet my bottom dollar that from the same sources that he pulled the information used to legitimize the 1966 Coup, others can extract enough data to thrash the Author's claims here.

Enough of this nonsense of what Coup is the best and what isn't. All our Coups are bad and were not necessary. There are many other Democratic ways the Citizens could have been led to force the political change needed. But the Opponents of Nkrumah wanted Power so bad, they did not care how they might get it.

It is so strange that the very ideas that Nkrumah used to launch us into a modest industrial era in his days are being touted by the NPP Economists, today, decades after that Party's predecessors rejected them. If we had managed to run better the factories Nkrumah built, and gradually divest them to private ownership in an honest manner, not selling them pennies on a dollar to cronies and foreign entities for personal 10% cuts,we would not be in the Economic mess we find ourselves in today.

How could those who champion Market Economy and Capitalism fail to recognize the value of generating Export capacity and the ability to substitute much of our import need with local production? The reality is that many of such folks are not genuine Capitalists but only use the claim to be such to lure Western support for their individual financial glutony. There is a difference between the pursuit of individual liberties and the clamor to gain these to obsecure people's sheer oligarchic greed.

Left to you and your incorrigible Nkrumah haters, Ghana should forever remain a beggar Nation, always looking up to the Developed Nations for handouts. And just so you know, Capitalism does not only mean "Ko to beton" --Buying and re-selling for profits. It is more about allowing individuals to be Economically competitive and productive, and have equal chance to compete in the Market Economy.

Tell the Truth with humility, and give the devil its due!!

Long Live Ghana!!!
Pelicles 11 years ago

Nkrumah's downfall was when he turned his attention of uniting Africa at a time he knew was "impossible". With that idea, he shifted his attention from Ghana but onto that useless African unity. Look, there is no way Nkrumah ...
read full comment

Nkrumah's downfall was when he turned his attention of uniting Africa at a time he knew was "impossible". With that idea, he shifted his attention from Ghana but onto that useless African unity. Look, there is no way Nkrumah could have unite the continent of Africa at that time when some nation were "too raw" to understand what he was about.

Nobody is denying the fact that our first leader did nothing. The man did pretty well but being the first leader, he could have done more such as, street naming, better sewage system, good roads linking all regional capitals to promote commerce and so much more. The British left money for those projects and comparing our population at that time, he could have done more.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

Pelicles, you are right that our sewage system of which I am particularly an avid advocate for its proper construction, and the street naming system, among other things, all are vital. But had we spent much of the money Nkrum ...
read full comment

Pelicles, you are right that our sewage system of which I am particularly an avid advocate for its proper construction, and the street naming system, among other things, all are vital. But had we spent much of the money Nkrumah had to undertake those projects, we would never have had anything left for our Secondary Schools and other industrial and Social infrastructural projects. Please, note that those projects we agree were not adequately attended to, could not generate revenue to expand our Economy. However, starting with the Factories and Education, for example, was a drive to build a Capital base with which to construct projects like the Sewage System and Street naming. The Sewage System as we knew about in the Developed World in the 60s was Capital intensive, very exhorbitant to build. The underground network of Sewage ducts or tunnels cost a lot, but do not necessarily generate revenues. Granted that modern Sewage systems could be designed to generate revenue via capturing methane for Power, recycling the Waste products for fertilizers, etc., the Technology was not available in the 60s to design such revenue producing systems.

Therefore, it only made most sense to embark upon Projects that would produce revenue with which we could finance these other projects. Additionally, many of the Projects were to curb our need to import from abroad. That would have saved our foreign exchange reserve that we would need to finance the other larger Projects.

I would, however, concede that the Cold War Politics of the day made the less efficient Eastern Technology more amenable to Nkrumah's Regime. But that is another angle of the discussion we could have some other time. My thing is, even if we fault the factories Nkrumah built with the inferior Eastern Technology for underperformance, could we not have remodeled them to incorporate Western elements to make them better when Nkrumah was booted out? Would we have not been better off with gradual replacement of those Plants with Western ones as we kept them working for a while? More, what is the evidence that all these factories were even losing money as some might charge? Obviously, some were very profitable, economically, even if we take out the Social aspect of offering jobs to our Citizens.

Oh, and one other thing we could still do along with the Street naming is to expand our tax-paying base. We would have to raise taxes but make everyone who makes money pay a little in tax, too. It is only with the Street Naming Address system that you mentioned, that we could and can effectively enforce wider tax collection. We cannot eat our cake and have it, too. If we want infrastructural developments, we have to be willing to pay our fair share of taxes. But how many people pay taxes in Ghana, even today? In the Colonial days, we had to pay "Land Poll" ('Lanpo' as our illiterate parents used to call it. Even that was almost inescapable. Yet, today, when there is better Technology around we still fail to capture taxes from most of our productive entities. The Street Naming Address system is a facilitator for economic growth.

Furthermore, the West played a double game on Nkrumah. They acted like they welcomed our Independence, as that fit into the theoritical Western ideology of Democratic governance. So, they, in that spirit made Nkrumah believe that their Credit Facilities would always be available for Nkrumah to tap into, if necessary. But it was right in the middle of the Akosombo Dam Construction that Nkrumah was refused Credit by the IMF/WB under the coercion of the CIA. This is an established, documented fact. Had Nkrumah believed earlier on that he would not get any such financial assistance from these Institutions, he might not have taken up so much responsibility within that short period.

Lastly, with the prices of everything rising as the demand for infrastructural development grew in newly Independent Countries around the World, the earlier a Nation could build her needed long-term projects, the less costly they would have been. That might have motivated Nkrumah to do so much, so soon, too. I do not think it was just for the personal prestige of having succeeded as a leader that made him tackle so much. Remember, most of the projects were integrated into the larger goal of the Development Plan. One piece left undone did pose danger to unravel the whole. For example, the Tema Harbor and the Town's rebuilding supported the larger Industrial plan of which the Motoway was also crucial, or at least, economically fitting. An exported driven Economy was always at the top of our Economists' minds.

The Bolga Meat Factory was supposed to be supported by the natural Agricultural base in the North, as was in the case of other Factory sitings. But we let it, and similar Factories, rot for Political expediency.

I cherish discussing stuff with you Pelicles. I wish we could all be objective in our analysis and not argue for the sake of Politics. Thanks.

Long Live Ghana!!!
CARDINAL 11 years ago

The violence at that time can be blame on both sides and the violence cannot be used as an excuse For one to make himself President for life or to declare a one party state.

Nkrumah arrested anybody suspected of engaging i ...
read full comment

The violence at that time can be blame on both sides and the violence cannot be used as an excuse For one to make himself President for life or to declare a one party state.

Nkrumah arrested anybody suspected of engaging in violence including students and farmers so what was the rationale of making himself President for life?

G.K, tell me how you expected Ghanaians to change Nkrumah if they wished to do so democratically since he had closed all avenues for voting him out.

Nkrumah had become paranoid he was accusing and arresting his own CPP members and some of them ran away to avoid his dictatorial rule including his Finance Minister K.A Gbedemah. He even accused four of his Ministers for planning and executing the Kulungugu bomb attempt on his life. 1966 coup was the only coup that was warranted in our history.

Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

Thanks a great deal for your forthrightness and impartiality. You have sent both Cardinal and Pelicles to the cleaners.

Ayi koo!!! Akpe!!!

Thanks a great deal for your forthrightness and impartiality. You have sent both Cardinal and Pelicles to the cleaners.

Ayi koo!!! Akpe!!!
C.Y. ANDY-K 11 years ago

Abeeku, thanks for your spirited rebuttal of the selective writing of SAS. I shook my head constantly reading through it. Just some remarks off the cuff.

First of all some disclaimers. I am a pro-Nkrumahist as they come ev ...
read full comment

Abeeku, thanks for your spirited rebuttal of the selective writing of SAS. I shook my head constantly reading through it. Just some remarks off the cuff.

First of all some disclaimers. I am a pro-Nkrumahist as they come even though my roots stretch into all parties, inclusive the UP. IGP Harlley was married to an aunt, with same surname as moi.

My maternal side provided more detainees under PDA than any other family in Ghana. Yes, it was my father, a top Workers Brigade officer, with both military and Police officer training ranks, who got many released before the coup. Those who were released after the coup were very pissed at my father for not getting them released too, as they were all picked up on false charges engineered by local enemies. One can read the details of all that in the Djabanor Committee Report which investigated the disturbances in Anloga after the abortive coup of 1967, which report exonerated Nkrumah and the CPP from blame for those arrests. But no sane govt could sit down unconcerned, when no less a person than that my ubiquitous uncle came to make such serious accusations, which included collecting money from Olympio to foment secession. When I heard that he was involved in having Dr Fiagbe removed by Rawlings as Sec. of the VR on similar accusations, decades later, I burst into laughter! You see, I am coming clean, as someone who knew more than the average person what happened under the CPP and after. After all, the great grandparents, grandparents, fathers and uncles of some of us put that country called Ghana together. We learned some things at home the rest of you CAN NEVER READ IN ANY BOOK! But the ignorance about what's in books is even amazing. Yes, that's why I know that the NLC detained more people under their own preventive detention decree which replaced the PDA than the number they released, which included many hardened criminals! Their offence? They belonged to a banned political party known as the CPP, not planning to bomb, or lead secession of the VR. And more people escaped into exile under the NLC than under the CPP.
Yes, shit happened under the CPP but even bigger shit continued under the NLC, and much later.

These is this big myth about the British leaving Nkrumah zillions of pounds! What is not said is that when Nkrumah became Leader of Govt Business and the West Africa Produce Board formed in 1938 or so in response to the cocoa hold-ups of the 1930s, was dissolved to give way to the present CMB, the reserves Ghana got was a mere £19m! Even more than what Nigeria got!

The accumulated reserves upon independence was accumulated by the CPP regime from 1953 to 1957 when the CPP accepted infamous "anchor of safety" advice of the West Indian Nobel laureate Arthur Lewis not to increase cocoa prices paid to farmers, not touch the boon beginning to result from the high commodity prices thanks to the Korean war which saw cocoa prices hitting the roof, but borrow money at a higher interest rate for the projects being planned, etc., etc. Of course, the immediate result was the revolt of the discontented cocoa farmers, most of whom voted for the CPP in the erstwhile elections 'cos of the promises it made [and rescinded, e.g., stopping cutting diseased cocoa trees], which the failed UGCC politicians, led by Busia, turned into the NLM.

So on the eve of independence, the kitty box won at great prize, which included a delay of our independence for over a year, was just about £250m! That sum was not even sufficient to cover Ghana's commitment to building the Akosombo Dam and related infrastructure, such as the Tema harbour and township! Yes, so the CPP borrowed but much of that was invested into infrastructure such as roads (CPP built and tarred more roads than the British did in 60 years of colonial rule), schools, water and electricity extension, and into factories. The Divestiture C'ttee should tell us how much has been realised since the 1980s from those sales alone. The NPP supporters should tell us how much was realised by the NLC and PP from their sales, then we can say whether Nkrumah squandered Ghana's money and put Ghana into debt! What assets can the NPP and NDC people claim they have acquired and left for the future posterity to sell, with the billion dollars debts they have acquired!

As for Nkrumah being a dictator, it is just pure balderdash. Even those who overthrew him accused him of "creeping dictatorship", i.e., they staged the coup to avert his becoming a dictator, which he was allegedly creeping to become! That's why external researchers and authors such as Fitch and Oppenheimer, authors of Ghana: The End of an Illusion, were surprised at the robustness of the debates in Parliament, from both sides of the house, even after 1964 when the one party state was declared constitutionally after a referendum. [Btw, the one party system, I learned in Pol. Science, is closer to the original democratic system than the new Western plural system. Ref. Macpherson]. Even Gbedemah went to Parliament to denounce Nkrumah before going into voluntary exile!

Corruption in the CPP? Sure! There was but it wasn't rampant and brazen as we have been seeing since the overthrow of the CPP, and then somehow after 1992 with the return to civilian rule but with a vengeance after 2000. Under the CPP, one had to be very careful and outright stealing of public funds was rare. There are several ways to make illegal money without stealing govt funds. This is not to say that funds were not stolen. Unfortunately, my father rejected all those means to secure a fortune, while the fortune he had before accepting govt contract to help set up the Workers Brigade became a bonanza to friends and family he handed over his business interests in order to avoid conflict of interests issues. As he usedto say in anger while we kids cowered in fear: "My father didn't born me a thief!". Hmmm!

Under the NLC and PP regimes, an open season was declared on public assets under the guise of privatisation, in the same manner we have seen under Kufuor when the so-called in-filling policy became a ruse to steal state lands and houses, instead of building more houses for civil servants on those lands!

One of these days, I shall write about how the Nzeribe affair got Gen. Ankrah removed as head of state. I ironed the shirt for my father to appear before the C'ttee in camera which heard the charges!

Time to close at work so I'll cut the cackle here.

Andy-K
Kweku Ananse 11 years ago

A most balanced, factual, worthy rebuttal.

A most balanced, factual, worthy rebuttal.
Mr. Figure-Out 11 years ago

Nkrumah was moulded in a radical civil right activist pot of the USA and therefore allow himself to be consumed by the pains endured by our under the slave masters. Hence his rejection of everything West which would later cas ...
read full comment

Nkrumah was moulded in a radical civil right activist pot of the USA and therefore allow himself to be consumed by the pains endured by our under the slave masters. Hence his rejection of everything West which would later caste is wicked spell on the economy which was damnably broke at the time of his overthrow. As visionable as Nkrumah was, one would have expected him to have built a much better Ghana with huge monetary resource and the human capital available at the time when the population of Ghana hovers somewhere around six million, and strengthened our internal democracy, he instead chose to globe trotting , giving speeches and tried to dogmatized his admirers,with his Afrocentric doctrines which was visibly dead on arrival, the reasons why Africa should unite under his intransigent dictatorial leadership steward. What was more risible is that when he was preaching African continental unity he was busily employing the divided and rule tactics back at home by destroying the united front of the Kookoase kingdom which was then comprised of vast parts of Central, Bono-Ahafo, Western , part of Northern Volta (Trokosiland) and the greater Kookoase region itself. For political expediency, Nkrumah succeeded in destroying the oneness that existed between Kookoase and their beloved countrymen, and reprehensibly detached all other tribes from the Ashantis with his regional redemarcation, the result of which is the incessant animosity and morbid hatred that we find ourselves today. Some unifier! So it makes me laugh my teeth when Nkrumah's apologies make much noise about the posthumous 'Africa of the Millinnium ' award which was teasingly conferred on a known dictator who declare himself life president by not any mere media outlet than the bbc which I believe has a great respect for multiparty democracy. That award was very insulting to all those who believe in democracy and should be treated with all the contemptuous disdain it deserves.
Franco 11 years ago

Dr SAS and Cardinal are Ashanti tribal fanatics who are anti-Nkrumah.Tell them to criticise their GOD,the Asantehene for failing to produce financial statements for the bogus OTUMFUO EDUCATION FUND,for buying 5 million pounds ...
read full comment

Dr SAS and Cardinal are Ashanti tribal fanatics who are anti-Nkrumah.Tell them to criticise their GOD,the Asantehene for failing to produce financial statements for the bogus OTUMFUO EDUCATION FUND,for buying 5 million pounds mansion in England,for buying another 2 million dollars mansion in South Africa with Ashanti stool money,while Ashanti school children are studying under trees,and they will run away from this forum.These two guys and Dr Kofi Ellison are imbued with inexplicable with fanaticism and blind solidarity for the Ashanti God,Otumfuo.I am not surprised
Pelicles 11 years ago

The author of the article under discussion is from the Volta Region so, do not let the name fool you into thinking that he is an Akan. Also, the fact that they are against Nkrumah, do not make them "fanatics". Nkrumah will n ...
read full comment

The author of the article under discussion is from the Volta Region so, do not let the name fool you into thinking that he is an Akan. Also, the fact that they are against Nkrumah, do not make them "fanatics". Nkrumah will not command the support of all of us. Why? The truth about the man is gradually unravelling. During his reign, how many radio stations are in the country? Also, why was he against political dissent? He ruled without a vice and imagine he died on the throne, don't you think there would have been power struggle among those who were so close to him thereby sending the entire nation into chaos?
Helena 11 years ago

You sound stupid, uneducated and very foolish. Upon all your education you still dont know that there are other ethnic groups other than Ewes in the Volta Region? Its just like saying Ga/Adangbes are the only inhabitants in A ...
read full comment

You sound stupid, uneducated and very foolish. Upon all your education you still dont know that there are other ethnic groups other than Ewes in the Volta Region? Its just like saying Ga/Adangbes are the only inhabitants in Accra.

How stupid! Let it be known to you that Northern Volta is inhabited by many ethnic groups who are not Ewes and do speak their preferred first languages. They may speak or understand Ewe but only speak it as a second language.

Good Day
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

Dear Pelicles, whether it is liked or not, Nkrumah's achievements for Ghana far exceed his shortcomings.

Dear Pelicles, whether it is liked or not, Nkrumah's achievements for Ghana far exceed his shortcomings.
Albert Arhin 11 years ago

Dr Samuel Adjei Sarfo and other critics like CARDINAL,Figure-Out etc are too naive.There is overwhelming evidence that CIA and British Intelligence masterminded Nkrumah's overthrow in their own interest and not in the interes ...
read full comment

Dr Samuel Adjei Sarfo and other critics like CARDINAL,Figure-Out etc are too naive.There is overwhelming evidence that CIA and British Intelligence masterminded Nkrumah's overthrow in their own interest and not in the interest of Ghanaians.I want them to deny this fundemantal fact before I come back.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

The issue is not who masterminded what; the issue is a. Whether Nkrumah was a dictator.
b. And if so, whether the coup that toppled him was justified.

In answering that question, it should suffice that ...
read full comment

The issue is not who masterminded what; the issue is a. Whether Nkrumah was a dictator.
b. And if so, whether the coup that toppled him was justified.

In answering that question, it should suffice that I am a Ghanaian by birth.

Franco 11 years ago

NO COUP D'ETAT IS GOOD.YOU NEED TO GO BACK TO STUDY LAW.

NO COUP D'ETAT IS GOOD.YOU NEED TO GO BACK TO STUDY LAW.
CARDINAL 11 years ago

What has Otumfuo mansions got to do with with Ghana money? Nobody can accuse Asantehene for stealing any money belonging to Ghana. Since you have made it clear here that you are not Asante, leave it to the Asantes to complain ...
read full comment

What has Otumfuo mansions got to do with with Ghana money? Nobody can accuse Asantehene for stealing any money belonging to Ghana. Since you have made it clear here that you are not Asante, leave it to the Asantes to complain if Asantehene is misusing their money.

Asante children are schooling under trees but that has not stopped the Ewes in migrating in droves from Volta region to come to Ashanti region to attend school under trees, has it?
Sir Jones 11 years ago

Cardinal,since you are an inward-looking Ashanti,and you are urging us to leave Ashantis alone to complain about Otomfuo's misdeeds,I want you to be the first to criticise Asantehene.

Cardinal,since you are an inward-looking Ashanti,and you are urging us to leave Ashantis alone to complain about Otomfuo's misdeeds,I want you to be the first to criticise Asantehene.
Albert Arhin 11 years ago

According to the Ashanti king,the OTUMFUO EDUCATION FUND was not formed to assist Ashantis alone.This is why Ashantis and non-Ashantis,likewise businesses all over the country have been donating generously to the Fund.Cardina ...
read full comment

According to the Ashanti king,the OTUMFUO EDUCATION FUND was not formed to assist Ashantis alone.This is why Ashantis and non-Ashantis,likewise businesses all over the country have been donating generously to the Fund.Cardinal,would you appeal to your King to publish the Financial statements of this bogus Fund if you are a fair-minded and sincere person?
C.Y. ANDY-K 11 years ago

You are such an ignorant, mentally blighted fool I often chose to ignore you but I want to make an exception and correct you on this historical point, that "Northern Volta (Trokosiland)" was part of the Asante Kingdom when Gh ...
read full comment

You are such an ignorant, mentally blighted fool I often chose to ignore you but I want to make an exception and correct you on this historical point, that "Northern Volta (Trokosiland)" was part of the Asante Kingdom when Ghana attained indep. Nothing can be further from the truth.

First of all, trokosi is not found in N. VR and the inhabitants are not Ewes even though there are many Ewe settlers there.

Yes, the Asante once extended their pernicious rule and influence over that area, but it was all for the worse reason: plunder and raids for booty in humans, elephant tusks, etc. After the revolt of Kwadwo Dei I, the middle VR area had asserted its independence, and later with Bekwai which had jurisdiction over N. VR in revolt against Kumasi, it was all war, war, war, leading to the Sagrenti War of 1874.

More importantly, by the Treaties signed after the Sagrenti War and associated Glover War, the Asantes were made to renounce any claims to that area known as TVT, stretching through Dagbon to UE/R forever. My own great, great grandfather was at the head of the table when the Treaty at Dzelukope was signed. The Asante representative was named as "Okobim Paba, Chief Asantee Ambassador".

It therefore follows that the current situation whereby some chiefs of Worawora, etc. have joined the Asanteman Council is an aberration and a breach of the Peace Treaty signed. More on that later.

As for the source of the morbid hatred and animosity, I think the time is due to tell you ignorant fools as it is!

Andy-K
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

My dear Cardinal, I beg to differ. Just juxtapose the structures and infrastructures laid by Osagyefuo with the "huge debt" he allegedly incurred. You'd be surprised how a mountain has been made of a mole hill.

I know quit ...
read full comment

My dear Cardinal, I beg to differ. Just juxtapose the structures and infrastructures laid by Osagyefuo with the "huge debt" he allegedly incurred. You'd be surprised how a mountain has been made of a mole hill.

I know quite well Nkrumah was never and will never be in your good books since he clamped down heavily on your excesses.

Whether it is liked or not, the Feb 24, 1966 could was the handwork of reactionaries calculated to halt the speedy development of Ghana.
kosoko 11 years ago

Cardinal stop spewing trash basing upon SAS's Garbage. If you want real information about Nkrumah's administration,it's not the flawed committee reports assembled by the so called NLC. It's only in the psyche of SAS and the l ...
read full comment

Cardinal stop spewing trash basing upon SAS's Garbage. If you want real information about Nkrumah's administration,it's not the flawed committee reports assembled by the so called NLC. It's only in the psyche of SAS and the like of you that an assessment is done only on one side of the ledger
william 11 years ago

Writing such self-serving, myopic and highly TWISTED piece from one who claims to have a PH.D in analysis and thinking shows how 'education' can often amount to ONLY 'literacy' to be misused and to misinform!Sam Adjei, can yo ...
read full comment

Writing such self-serving, myopic and highly TWISTED piece from one who claims to have a PH.D in analysis and thinking shows how 'education' can often amount to ONLY 'literacy' to be misused and to misinform!Sam Adjei, can you imagine what a laughing stock you make of yourself in the US where writings on Nkrumah abound? Check Nkrumah's status and image in the US AND STOP BEHAVING LIKE A RURAL TEXAN COWBOY DEPRIVED OF INFO ON AFRICA!The NLC 'ensured freedom of speech and the press'? Wow. Were you a baby not to have followed closely what transpired?
Yusuf 11 years ago

If it is a twisted piece, give us the truth instead of attacking the messenger. The lies about Nkrumah is coming out. The man was a dictator and you all cannot rebutt that truth.

If it is a twisted piece, give us the truth instead of attacking the messenger. The lies about Nkrumah is coming out. The man was a dictator and you all cannot rebutt that truth.
william 11 years ago

Why will i waste my time when both of you already have the info but cannot handle it!!And what do you 'understand by 'the truth'? If the truth is to highlight Nkrumah's failures, real or imagined, the that can only be mislead ...
read full comment

Why will i waste my time when both of you already have the info but cannot handle it!!And what do you 'understand by 'the truth'? If the truth is to highlight Nkrumah's failures, real or imagined, the that can only be misleading and dishonest. If the trith is to attempt to provide a balanced picture, including achievements and failures, then that is closer to the truth. Obviously that is not of interest to Sarfo and you unfortunately fall into that abyss too!

CARDINAL 11 years ago

You are already wasting your time talking nonsense because you cannot rebutt the truth Sarfo wrote.

You are already wasting your time talking nonsense because you cannot rebutt the truth Sarfo wrote.
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

Shut up, my dear. Was your father among the fellows Nkrumah jailed for their treasonable acts against the state?

Shut up, my dear. Was your father among the fellows Nkrumah jailed for their treasonable acts against the state?
Pelicles 11 years ago

If this article was a twisted fact, kindly tell us the truth. Nkrumah was our downfall if you will accept that fact. Let me ask you one question. After Ghana weaned herself off British rule, the money given to us was to ca ...
read full comment

If this article was a twisted fact, kindly tell us the truth. Nkrumah was our downfall if you will accept that fact. Let me ask you one question. After Ghana weaned herself off British rule, the money given to us was to cater for our needs right? So, why did Nkrumah turn his eyes towards "Uniting Africa" at a time he know was impossible by using our money on stupid ventures such as training of freedom fighter etc? After the coup, how many Africans were in Ghana being fed by this maniac all in the name of African Unity? Nkrumah was he only leader who inherited no debt but after his removal, Ghana was deep in debt. If he though twice, he should have rather developed the Ghana to the envy of all by street naming, better sewage, constructing roads to link all the regional capitals just to promote commerce. He had so many to do but he ignored all and turned his eyes towards African Unity. Imagine how much he spent on that stupid Ghana-Guinea-Mali Alliance. What exactly did that alliance brought to us?

The man did well be he fell short of something and allowed power to override his commonsense. He should have laid a solid foundation to stand the test of time. The corruption we see in Ghana, started with Nkrumah because all those who were in his government are rich and where did they get the money?
william 11 years ago

fALSEHOOD 1: did the Brish give us a gift? Was the money theirs?
Falsehood 2. Who is GHANAIAN? Can you be Ghanaian without being African? Can any African country pretend to move forward without her African neighbours?
Fals ...
read full comment

fALSEHOOD 1: did the Brish give us a gift? Was the money theirs?
Falsehood 2. Who is GHANAIAN? Can you be Ghanaian without being African? Can any African country pretend to move forward without her African neighbours?
Falsehood 3: Corruption started with Nkrumah? Before him there was no corruption and after him the others genuinely fought corruption?
The biggest tragedy in Africa is the continued mental/psychological slavery seen in our 'so-called educated elite' to the extent we cannot appreciate any god out of ourselves!!! But times are changing for the better. Nsh'Allah!
Pelicles 11 years ago

When the Europeans came to Africa, there were tribal wars isn't it? Take Ghana for example. Most of the tribes were fighting among themselves. At that time, how united are we let alone the entire continent of Africa?

Yes, ...
read full comment

When the Europeans came to Africa, there were tribal wars isn't it? Take Ghana for example. Most of the tribes were fighting among themselves. At that time, how united are we let alone the entire continent of Africa?

Yes, I am a Ghanaian first before an African and then let me ask you this. Can you just entre into any country in Africa without the required document and why is that need if we are "one people" on the continent?

We have to think about our country first before the continent of Africa. Imagine being rich, you will make sure your children are well taken care off before thinking about someone outside your household. That is the mindset of a normal person.

Do you remember Kofi Awoonor? He said "I am an EWE before a Ghanaian". Unquote. And he did not regret making that statement why? Because he was of the view that before Ghana, he was an Ewe.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

Can someone supply us the exact percentage of the money the British left us that Nkrumah used to promote African Unity?

If I were to suggest that Nkrumah might have viewed the Unification of African States in the same lig ...
read full comment

Can someone supply us the exact percentage of the money the British left us that Nkrumah used to promote African Unity?

If I were to suggest that Nkrumah might have viewed the Unification of African States in the same light as Europe sought for the European Union, or the USA sought for the NAFTA, what would your response be? And there is ample evidence that such was Nkrumah's vision.

It must be noted that the immediate post-Colonial West always stood against anything that could advance our newly Independent Nations. It has been suggested that the West paid Morroco and the Ivory Coast and other Countries they liked to stay away from joining the OAU and from attending many Sessions that certain crucial decisions were to be taken to solidify the Union. In other cases, these same Countries were coerced to vote against resolutions that the West did not agree with.

Ghana could not live in isolation, in the long run. Bringing other African Countries along could have been the best for our mutual growth. But the same distractions persist today and that explains why we all have made little progress as individual Nations.

Talking about Debt. Economists would tell you that it is not the existence of debt per se that draws down the growth of a Nation. But what the debt constitutes as a percentage of our GDP, and what it was used for are the most essential things to consider.

Some entities would have to take up huge debts, even from their beginnings, but if those debts were incurred for the production of some viable, profitable ventures, they could end up eliminating the debts and becoming self-reliant, and debt-free.

You now sound more like the anti-Obama Republicans. I may also sound, today, as a staunch Nkrumahist. But I have taken some good enough time to think about what Nkrumah did, his achievements, and failures and what are some of the things that caused his failures.

It is not true that all those in Nkrumah's Government are rich. However, most of those who joined him on his crusade were already established local successes. Many were business owners. Others also were from Royal families in small localities and owned properties, especially land, even though many paramount Chiefs had bought into the UP/NLM program that Nkrumah was out to deny them their heritage. The so-called veranda-boys were the youths who saw their future success in the freedom of the Nation and thought that they would have opportunities of a lifetime to study and grow wealth--something only a few youths could hope for under the British, unless they had land and money to establish large Cocoa farms.

The exuberant enthusiasm of those Youths is what spilled over to lead some to hooliganism and fights with the UP/NLM Action Troopers as well.

I don't know how old you were in Nkrumah's time. But I was old enough to know how proud many youths were in the Worker's Brigade or Agriculture Extension Units across the Nation, even when they could not attend Secondary Schools. What I also noticed that I consider somehow negative in the way it was implemented is that: many of the educationally-minded CPP Action Troopers were offered help to attend Secondary Schools with grants. I never met any Youth from the UP/NLM side that enjoyed similar Scholarship, and that I think suggests certain partisan discrimination that I dislike about Nkrumah's Regime. But the presence of these former CPP Action Troopers in Government Secondary Schools was significant. Hence, we could see Secondary School Students that were old enough to have long graduated from the University.

The Secondary Education, however, helped many such youths get closer to achieving economic success. Surely, like former President Kufuor said, Corruption in Ghana dates way back, and Nkrumah's era was no exception. But remember that all you have been hinging on is relative morality or efficiency of Nkrumah's outfit. Therefore, we should not throw sand in anyone's eye to say there was no corruption under Nkrumah. Emphaitically, there was. Nevertheless, how many folks in his Administration were that corrupt? And how was any discovered act of corruption handled by Nkrumah? It is a fact that his most trusted and loved Cabinet Ministers like Krobo Edusei and Gbedemah all received heavy penalties from reported corruption. In the case of Gbedemah, the very right-hand man of Nkrumah's who held up the CPP when Nkrumah was jailed prior to the Independence, was under legal processing for prosecution when he bolted out of the Country. Kofi Baako even was mentioned to have met his battle for rsimilar reasons; only his case was not firmly established against him. Others who got booted from their positions for known corruption later joined the opposition to plot against Nkrumah, even became accomplices in the Kulungugu Bomb Assassination attempt.

It was because of a corruption allegation against the Police IGP of those days, Harley, which came under investigations that he teamed up with Kotoka in plotting the Coup that eventually toppled Nkrumah.

So, can you tell me no other Regime after Nkrumah had corrupt entities in it? Or, you are arguing that had Nkrumah's Administration not had anyone corrupt within it, no other Regime thereafter would have had a corrupt member? A precedence set, huh?

If one person begins to sin, it does not justify others sinning, too. What prevented Nkrumah's fault-finders in the Opposition to stay clean all through to set themselves apart for honesty and integrity to serve as role models for future Politicians?

If you want to blame anyone for wasting our money, start with those who closed our factories we had already invested in to let them rot, or sold them cheaply to their cronies who had no clue how to run companies, either. Do you know something, a most recent example of those you should be blaming for wasting our money is the group that sold our Telecom with all its most valuable fibreoptic networks to the British for cheap, in a negotiation that was kept out of the Parliament's eye or ear and in total secrecy.

The sale was not open to any serious public bidding. Why? Nkrumah did not come out of his grave to push for that sale. The idiocy of ignoring various projects to die unatural deaths because they were initiated by a political foe also began with the ouster of Nkrumah. Would you agree or not? Hence, many of our Factories were left to rot away. That is, to me, the height of imbecillic, unfathomable waste.

Long Live Ghana!!!
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

Pelicles, your scathing critique on Nkrumah amazes me. The man was a man of vision and a born ruler and leader.

Just consider the structures and infrastructures he initiated before his inglorious overthrow by the reaction ...
read full comment

Pelicles, your scathing critique on Nkrumah amazes me. The man was a man of vision and a born ruler and leader.

Just consider the structures and infrastructures he initiated before his inglorious overthrow by the reactionaries - the Akosombo Dam, Ghana Nautical College, Pre-Fab Factory to speed up housing the people (which went into operation and was churning out 120 housing units monthly), countless Teacher Training Colleges, Technical Schools, Secondary Schools, GIHOC, GNTC,GNCC, Black Star Line, Ghana Airways, State Fishing Corporation, State Farms, Ghana Institute of Journalism, Accra-Tema Motorway. As an aside, the Accra-Tema Motorway was the beginning of a first class road network to link up the whole country.

The so-called debts of Nkrumah were mere fabrications to demonize the man and cast aspersions on his person.
FRANK OKINE 11 years ago

A shameful period in the history of the nation Ghana. It was the period in which the nation Ghana was turned upside down and had never managed since to right itself. l wished it had never happened. Any way if you want to know ...
read full comment

A shameful period in the history of the nation Ghana. It was the period in which the nation Ghana was turned upside down and had never managed since to right itself. l wished it had never happened. Any way if you want to know Sam' the best coup d'etat was the one that ended all coup d'etats.
Yaw Mensah 11 years ago

Kwame Nkrumah was a power drunk dictator and Kotoka and his gallant men did Ghana a lot of good by sending him to exile.

Kwame Nkrumah was a power drunk dictator and Kotoka and his gallant men did Ghana a lot of good by sending him to exile.
Kweku Boateng Jnr. 11 years ago

Major General Bawah was murdered by the coup makers. The industrialisation of Ghana was halted by the Americans, West Germans, Britain and others, who hated the Seven Year Development of the CPP. It was a bad example, they di ...
read full comment

Major General Bawah was murdered by the coup makers. The industrialisation of Ghana was halted by the Americans, West Germans, Britain and others, who hated the Seven Year Development of the CPP. It was a bad example, they did not want others developing states to follow. Just an example, the NLC set up a committee under the chairmanship of a British Sir Cockcroft that examined the power needs of Ghana in 1968. The report stated Ghana would not need any more power for the next 50 years. It took professor Kotei from the Department of Chemistry to issue a minority report saying the majority report accepted by the Notorious Liars Council government was going to perpetuate backwardness in the country. The WB, the Americans and others were pleased with the majority report, hence nothing was done to boost up energy production. This is partly the source of the energy shortage Ghana is facing today. The Whiteman thinks better than an Nkrumah, what a shame. Neo colonialism in action. Electricity as one Russian revolutionary Lenin once stated is the most essential for development. I hope Dr. Sarto has read Nkrumah's master piece Dark Days in Ghana, 1966 where all the industries, factories, learning centres etc there for all Ghanaians to read. Sarfo, what did the Americans say about the shoe and Jute factories in Kumasi? The Tamale international airport, the massive development of Cape Coast university?
Today, as a result of the tele-guided coup, Ghana that used to produce sugar, toothpick, jute bags for cocoa, shirts, shoes, and others is a nation of beggars, sellers, no industrial production, no added value to Shea nut, cocoa, gold, diamonds, manganese and others.
Dr. Sarfo, go and visit the Tarkwah gold refinery that Nkrumah constructed and you would weep if you are a true African. Can you imagine how much Africa would have earned from refining our gold? To label this CIA coup as the best coup Ghana ever had demonstrates the backward thinking in some people. But, as a once told a colleague '.... You are entitled to your own wrong opinion...' Nkrumah was not perfect just like any other human being. But, he was committed to Africa, hence decades after the Americans, French and British have removed him through stooges such as Afrifah, Kotoka, they are back supporting his continental programmes for example, An African High Command. Sorry to say, how did Afrifah and Kotoka end? All coups, right, centre and left are bad! It is not the duty of the armed forces to rule or govern.
gg 11 years ago

Nonsense to the highest order. Did you live through Nkrumah's brutal regime where parents even feared their own brain washed Young Pioneer children reporting their parents to Nkrumah killing field people?

Have you heard th ...
read full comment

Nonsense to the highest order. Did you live through Nkrumah's brutal regime where parents even feared their own brain washed Young Pioneer children reporting their parents to Nkrumah killing field people?

Have you heard the idiom, give me freedom or death? Nothing Nkrumah did was worth the fear he subjected Ghanaians through.

Most of the industries you talked about were failing due to shortage of raw materials not available in Ghana to feed these industries.
Kweku Boateng Jnr. 11 years ago

Nkrumah was a human being, his party made mistakes, his opponents were nothing but bomb throwers, modern day terrorists to say the lest.
GG, with due respect, I know from your contributions on the net, you make serious info ...
read full comment

Nkrumah was a human being, his party made mistakes, his opponents were nothing but bomb throwers, modern day terrorists to say the lest.
GG, with due respect, I know from your contributions on the net, you make serious informed comments. But, the point is where did your coup take Ghana to? We know Nkrumah made mistakes, did your coup makers and masters have to stop the industrialisation of Ghana?
Did the coup makers have to shoot General Bawah to death? Did they have to parade a Ghanaian in a cage on the streets of Accra? So much for human rights! Have a nice day. Read Dark Days in Ghana and you would see where the state funds were used for.
gg 11 years ago

What industrialization? Ghanaians just want to live in this mirage that Nkrumah was going to industrialize Ghana when at the time of his overthrow the country was falling apart after he had spent every dime he inherited from ...
read full comment

What industrialization? Ghanaians just want to live in this mirage that Nkrumah was going to industrialize Ghana when at the time of his overthrow the country was falling apart after he had spent every dime he inherited from the colonial masters and has started running budget deficits.

Nkrumah's industrilization was just a mirage. Most politicians if they had the money Nkrumah had could have done the same or better without Nkrumah's ambition to be President of Africa.

Nkrumah did his best but nothing extraordinary to crow about. The guy made Ghanaians prisoners in their own houses with his false imprisonment of Ghanaians without trial. He brought the coup on himself.
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

You are an unrepentant liar.

You are an unrepentant liar.
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

You are another blatant unrepentant liar. I lived through Nkrumah's reign and saw nothing bad except those who opposed him, and he jailed them.

By the way, do I expect you, gg, the son of and ex-detainee to say something ...
read full comment

You are another blatant unrepentant liar. I lived through Nkrumah's reign and saw nothing bad except those who opposed him, and he jailed them.

By the way, do I expect you, gg, the son of and ex-detainee to say something good about my own dear Osagyefo?
Tokugawah 11 years ago

You are indeed wrong. Ghana did not need any more electrical power in 1968, not after the Volta Dam, the second greatest achievement of Nkrumah. Nkrumah was a great leader but a vicious dictator. He may have been full of good ...
read full comment

You are indeed wrong. Ghana did not need any more electrical power in 1968, not after the Volta Dam, the second greatest achievement of Nkrumah. Nkrumah was a great leader but a vicious dictator. He may have been full of good intentions but he was enslaving his people and deserved to be deposed. The setting up of the various state corporations to manufacture was doomed to fail. The corporations were already failing at the time Nkrumah was deposed. The Egyptian leader, Mohammed Ali tried similar industrialisation of Egypt with far greater resources in the mid 19th century and that failed. It failed mainly because Egypt lacked the skills to engineer, to maintain, to be hard working, in spite of extensive training. Nkrumah was a communist and we all know communism failed and communist states, including Russia it's self were very inefficient. How could the various state corporations set up artificially by Nkrumah succeed? What success have we had since Nkrumah? We were failing under Nkrumah and also being enslaved by him. Our problems lie with our selves but no one has the guts to discuss it honestly.
Kweku Boateng Jnr. 11 years ago

Thank you for the comment, the committee said, Ghana did not need to construct more power stations for the next 50 years! 1968 plus 50 years brings us to 2018. I am sure some one may make this report public one day. We are n ...
read full comment

Thank you for the comment, the committee said, Ghana did not need to construct more power stations for the next 50 years! 1968 plus 50 years brings us to 2018. I am sure some one may make this report public one day. We are not thinking critically as a nation, we are not planning and implementing as a nation. And, what would one expect from Sir Cockcroft, (read Britain) Whose main agenda was to make sure we are not independent energy wise. They did a similar thing to the NPP with regards to poultry production.

If the corporations were failing, was the shoe and jute factories also failing? If yes, why could the NLC not do better? Look at the millions of dollars that the Cocoa Marketing Board spends in importing jute bags. The point is we are worse off as a nation industrialisation today than in 1966 and we are beggars all over the world. Today, we can't even clean our cities when younger nations such as Rwanda are moving forward. Burkina Faso has even the technology to manage rainfall, produce fruits, food meat, potatoes, unlike Ghana with all the highly skilled professionals and natural resources.
It is president Gamel Abdul Nasser of Egypt not Mohammed Ali.
Thank you for the I formation you provided. Am learning.
Tokugawah 11 years ago

Kweku, we agree on more than we disagree. Our problems are actually not complex, it is the acceptance of our inability to solve our problems which will forever hold us back. Sovereignty does not mean everything has to be done ...
read full comment

Kweku, we agree on more than we disagree. Our problems are actually not complex, it is the acceptance of our inability to solve our problems which will forever hold us back. Sovereignty does not mean everything has to be done by Ghanaians. The Governor of the Bank of England is Canadian and it is not because there are not enough bankers and economists in the UK. All right thinking people accept that we should at least feed our selves and not spend $1bn in rice, corn and other basic food imports. I do not think Ghanaian farmers can be incentivised enough to produce enough. The answer is a combination of incentivising local farmers and encouraging investors in China, yes China to come and produce rice, corn etc.In three years we shall be exporting rice. There is no leader in Ghana courageous or wise enough to take such a decision. Some Ghanaians look down upon the Chinese, a huge joke, some say they will over run us. How many colonies have the Chinese had? None. They could have colonised the entire world in the 15th century when their smallest army had more troops than the combined armies of Europe. Where ever the Chinese have been, that country has prospered. Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan. They do not destroy, they build because they like to make money.
By the way it is Muhammed Ali also known as Mehmet Ali, you may Wilkepedia it.
Kweku Boateng Jnr. 11 years ago

Thanks Togugawak! All along the Volta from its tributaries, Red, White and Black, Oti etc we can as a nation actually produce rice twice a year. All that is needed is innovative leadership to help us as Ghanaians to make it. ...
read full comment

Thanks Togugawak! All along the Volta from its tributaries, Red, White and Black, Oti etc we can as a nation actually produce rice twice a year. All that is needed is innovative leadership to help us as Ghanaians to make it. For example, use the FM radios, GBC to disseminate the right technology plus where to have seed capital. National service, the youth employment centres and MASLOW can take the lead.
Look at the wonders of citronella, catnip, rose merry and yet we spend millions in buying mosquito repellents. Not to talk of my hobby, greening Ghana with trees and solar energy.

For the Chinese, interesting it was in Peking that Nkrumah was informed of the coup. My Akosombo! My Tema! He exclaimed. It is the Chinese and Cuban leaders who supplied him with his white dresses when he was in Conakry. Why can Government be serious and secure the 3billion dollar loan to boost our infrastructure such as rail, agriculture and technology? Stay blessed.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

What if someone suggested that Nkrumah ruled by the tenets of Parliamentary Democracy until he could take no more of the violence the Opponents kept unleashing at him and his Administration? The PDA and Danquah's incarceratio ...
read full comment

What if someone suggested that Nkrumah ruled by the tenets of Parliamentary Democracy until he could take no more of the violence the Opponents kept unleashing at him and his Administration? The PDA and Danquah's incarceration all occurred within a couple of years or so before the 1966 Coup. How vicious was Nkrumah in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964? And how saintly was the Opposition in all those years? Elsewhere around the Globe, the West either orchestrated to have imposed on Nations, or tolerated Dictators far worse than Nkrumah. Remember the Shah of Iran?
How about General Pinochet of Chile's nightmare? How about Mobutu Seseko of Zaire? How about the Apartheid Regimes of Southern Rhodesia, South Africa and Namibia (Southwest Africa)?

What the heck do you mean by "state corporations set up artificially by Nkrumah?" How 'naturally' would you have liked to see those Corporations set up? Do you know how many Ghanaians had any significant wealth to have built any of those Corporations themselves as private entities? Do your really know the state of our Citizens' financial well-being as at the time we had Independence? Or, you are one of those who think we should have just opened our doors wide to invite every conceivable Investor in to build and wholly own those factories or Corporations, then? If the foreigners were any interested in investing here, or, had the British promoted foreign investments, here, they would have begun doing so when the British were in charge. The fact is that the West never intended to have us build that private ownership base to deny their homelands the sources of Employment for their population and access to valuable by-products from the Produce we shipped in their raw, unprocessed condition. We were expected to always be the farm-hands that would till the land to produce the raw materials to feed their factories, and also be a major part of their consumer market to enrich the shareholders of their Nations. Do you deny that?

The Communist labeling has not stopped China from being the World's second largest Economy today. China has still not claimed to be a Capitalist Nation. Yet, her progress has defied the worst political characterization. Please, open your mind wider to understand that building a Naiton like Ghana did not have to be captive to ideology. I dislike Communism. But using it as an excuse for our plight is untenable. We have practiced Capitalism many more years than lived under Communism. Why has it taken so long to break from our stagnation? We have received many breaks from our Debt payments under different Regimes. Yet, we have not made any significant dent in our Economic plight. So, do not blame Nkrumah alone for all the failures Ghana has been enduring.

By the way, Houphouet Boigny was not saintly a Dictator--if any Dictator could ever be saintly-- than Nkrumah. It was only that he chose to kowtow-kowtow to the West and they allowed him to exist in peace. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, too, was no more democratic than Nkrumah, yet when the West left him alone because he ran to them for protection from China's threats, he had the time to focus on his developmental plan. Just so you know, Lee was Nkrumah's personal friend and they shared ideas.

The reason Mohammed Ali of Egypt failed is also similar to Nkrumah's. All said, the West never forgave anyone who stood up against them, and always used the Market to subdue such a Leader. The West controlled the World Economy in those days and beyond, through Nkrumah's days. Don't forget. The Currency destabilization tactics, the withdrawal of Credit facilities, and deliberate ill-advice to developing Countries by the IMF/WB have all been the West's arsenal to bring down its perceived enemy State. Records abound all around the Developing Countries, especially South and Central America to establish that fact.

If nothing at all, Nkrumah might be correctly seen as having underestimated how badly the West wanted him to fail, as a leading proponent for and a supporter of Free Africa. The fact that he encouraged other Nations to win their Independence from the Western Colonial masters was enough reason for the West to target him for failure to discourage others from doing the same. He was pushed into the arms of the Soviets by the West, when he thought he needed a counter-balanced Power to provide him a refuge. Other Countries, like the Cote d'Ivoire, which sought for Independence but allowed considerable Political and Economic dictates by the West did not become targets for interference by the West.

Long Live Ghana!!!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

1. Nothing justifies the taking of the freedoms and sovereignty of the people. If this were not so, all dictators will fabricate a good reason for taking it.

2. You exhibit a smidgen of enlightenment when you admit, albeit ...
read full comment

1. Nothing justifies the taking of the freedoms and sovereignty of the people. If this were not so, all dictators will fabricate a good reason for taking it.

2. You exhibit a smidgen of enlightenment when you admit, albeit obscurely, that, " Nkrumah ruled by the tenets of Parliamentary Democracy until he could take no more of the violence the Opponents kept unleashing at him and his Administration? The PDA and Danquah's incarceration all occurred within a couple of years or so before the 1966 Coup." We will assume the contrapositive that he abandoned parliamentary tenets at the latter years of his rule, That is all what is needed to justify his removal! It will make some sense to claim that he was gradually moving away from tyranny to accept the democratic dispensation....In that instance, his removal might have been unnecessary.
A marked difference between Nkrumah and Rawlings was that while Nkrumah was descending into the darkness of tyranny, Rawlings was doing exactly the reverse!
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

For the purposes of deeper enlightenment, if your contrapositive holds, how does that situation match the US Administration's decimation of the People's liberties under the excuse of protecting them from Al Qaeda? In this US ...
read full comment

For the purposes of deeper enlightenment, if your contrapositive holds, how does that situation match the US Administration's decimation of the People's liberties under the excuse of protecting them from Al Qaeda? In this US case, the people seemed to have accepted the limited freedom because the threat of Al Qaeda was real as seen in the 9/11 calamity.

Couldn't we say similarly about Nkrumah's action with the PDA? When the bombs started going off in Ghana against innocent Civilians while targeting the late President, the Government's hand was forced by that emergency to act to provide Public security. We could argue from dusk to dawn on the extent to which such emergency order ought to have lasted, and how it ought to have been executed if no Constitution element guides us to the proper action by the Government in such a case. But in both cases, we see how the Government could not execute any emergency order without infringing upon the rights of many citizens. Isn't the reality that any excesses occurring in the invocation of these emergencies ought to be blamed on the cause and culprits rather than on only the Government that is executing those emergencies? At this point, we may then have to ask how much latitude our existing Constitution allows for executing such an emergency. It might well be that the temporary over-reach by the Government to institute the emergency was within the Law as well.

While in my last assertion we could draw a Constitutional justification for the Government's action, we cannot justify the suspension of the Constitution at any level. Unlike your terminal condition for the President's removal, associated with my suggestion that Nkrumah did abandon the tenets of Parliamentary Democracy only after he had enough of the opposition's terror, I was referring to an emergency response the Constitution might have provided to usurp the normal Democratic proceedures. As I understand, the PDA was the result of a Parliamentary majority rule. Never did I ever hear the Opposition appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn it, even if it seemed impossible under Nkrumah's heavy thumb. Another example that I would like to bring up on the Opposition's implied inadequate use of Constitutional measures to arrest Nkrumah's Dictatorhip is on the trial of the suspects in the Kulungugu Bombing. I remember the Chief Justice was removed when the trial of suspects in the Assassination attempt on the President ended up failing to convict the suspects. If our Constitution did not provide that the President could recall the Justices at whim, then Nkrumah over-reached and, again, the Opposition should have turned to the Parliament to intervene.

However, the Opposition did not call up the Parliament on that removal and so might not have fully exhausted our Constitutional accesses to challenge and overturn the Government's action, largely because the Opposition was acting upon speculation that the Government would stick to its guns.

Time is a very interesting factor in this topic. I could entertain the opinion that Nkrumah might have, hopefully, withdrawn from his Dictatorship after a little while, maybe under the pressure of an increasingly bolder Public. Our Democracy could have been saved then.

So, how quickly do we have to expect a Military intervention in any onerous emergency situation to justify the Coup?

Long Live Ghana!!!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

What we need to establish here is whether Nkrumah was a dictator. I think at this point in time, you and I agree that he was.
Your problem now is the method of his overthrow. In furtherance of this, you cite a panoply of way ...
read full comment

What we need to establish here is whether Nkrumah was a dictator. I think at this point in time, you and I agree that he was.
Your problem now is the method of his overthrow. In furtherance of this, you cite a panoply of ways in which the problem of Nkrumah's dictatorship could have been resolved. What I seek to do today is not to accommodate Nkrumah's foolishness but to assert that he was a dictator, and that his overthrow was justified. Indeed, the coup that overthrew him had validity in current constitutional law and logic.
Instead of engaging in speculation and what-if, your time will be better spent in joining me to say that never again will this country allow megalomaniacs to take it hostage, and that if at any time, the government of the day tramples on the god-given rights of the people as enshrined in our sacred constitution, it is our right, nay our duty, to overthrow it with all means possible!
Our national anthem concludes with these eternal words: "And help us to resist the oppressors rule with all our will and might forever more"!
CARDINAL 11 years ago

G.K, just tell me what other alternative Nkrumah gave to the populace to replace him apart from a coup if they so wished.

With me, it is not whether Nkrumah did well economically or not which is open for debate but he left ...
read full comment

G.K, just tell me what other alternative Nkrumah gave to the populace to replace him apart from a coup if they so wished.

With me, it is not whether Nkrumah did well economically or not which is open for debate but he left the populace only one alternative to remove him and that is what he got.

Apart from the 1966 coup, all the other coups were unnecessary including Rawlings 1979 coup because the voters could have voted for their preferred Presidents or Prime Ministers.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

We could have resorted to popular Civil Disobedience, where the sheer surge of the Population in all the Regions, not only a select few, could have signalled to Nkrumah what the People really wanted, or hated about him. The f ...
read full comment

We could have resorted to popular Civil Disobedience, where the sheer surge of the Population in all the Regions, not only a select few, could have signalled to Nkrumah what the People really wanted, or hated about him. The first Coup set precedent and some in the Military thought they had to take turns to prove their courage against the group they disagreed with.

For a person who many claim was a megalomaniac, Nkrumah would have been shaken to the core and moved quickly to undo the one-Party and Life-time President crap. I do not believe Nkrumah would have ordered the kind of brutal suppression and assault on the Population like we have seen in Ukraine and other Arab Spring Nations.

Even though Nkrumah's Dictatorial tendencies were well-known by the Citizens, we never got to the point where the so-called Gestapo tactics were very obvious in the Society. So, many ordinary folks did not believe in the complaints offered by the Opposition on that, and tended to believe the Government's stories against any apprehended Opposition leader, whether true or false.

That is why I think had the Opposition used its resources to educate the Masses better, like when Dr. Busia's Center of Civic Education began doing later on, the Public might have coalesced to present a significant challenge for the Government of the day to soften up. The first action was to incite the Public to demand private Media participation in the dissemination of News. The Government control of the Media was part of the reason the Government succeeded to misinform the Public in some cases.

Initially, the Opposition could have faced a grave danger to have their local leaders marked down for apprehension. But the Education could have been in a way that the Government would have found no threat of violence to use as cover to arrest the people. The local folks were always sensitive to Police action that contravened their communal spirit and that kept the Police in check in rural areas. That phenomenon could have been capitalized upon to neutralize any Police or Government terror anticipated upon the People.

When Young Pioneers became notorious to the point where many Parents did not want their kids to join, it was initially feared that parents who did not allow their kids to join would be arrested. But that never really happened. At least, not on any significant scale. Later on, many School Teachers adamantly rejected any local CPP Organizational order to have all kids wear their scarves to school. I hated those scarves. I did not wear them often and got in trouble with my Headteacher once. But later on, it became very voluntary.

The number of parents hating it had grown and the Authorities supporting the Pioneers saw the danger of aggravating the Adult masses with any coercive measures to force kids to be part of the Pioneers. I remember hearing a news item in those days where the Government's Educational Ministry denied that there was an order for all kids to wear the Pioneere Scarves or be part of the group.

Well, this debate would continue for years, I presume, because many of us have entrenched view of either side to the point where they would never budge to reconsider the other's claim. I wish we could all be objective and honestly put ourselves in the shoes of the other person to see what we might and could have done in any circumstance.

To me, the ability to fairly weigh the contributions and errors by our past leaders is another task for development in our Society. That is because the topic polarizes us to exclude any chance of compromise on matters that are currently pertinent to our mutual growth and Peaceful co-existence.

I understand your point of view, Sarpong, but from my personal first-hand experience and what I have found out in other sources, I have come to reject this unconditional eternal enmity against, and vilification of any of our past leaders, as well as the assumption of incorrigibility and canonization of any of them, including Nkrumah. We should see them as mere mortals acting within a certain context that we have to consider in making judgments on them.

Long Live Ghana!!!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

You stated in your first post:
"There are many other Democratic ways the Citizens could have been led to force the political change needed."

Cardinal's question implies "a democratic way." For example, balloting, the cour ...
read full comment

You stated in your first post:
"There are many other Democratic ways the Citizens could have been led to force the political change needed."

Cardinal's question implies "a democratic way." For example, balloting, the courts or parliament.

If you approve of mass uprising (a messier more violent and chaotic way already proscribed by Nkrumah's PDA) it is no different from a coup d'état ( a more straightforward and effective way).
In any case, the coup was cleaner and had the stamp of approval of the masses, and at least you are impliedly coming to understand the naked fact that Nkrumah was a brutal dictator. Need we discuss how a dictator falls?
Poto gum ne hwie gum ne nyinaa ko kwans3n koro no mu!
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

SAS, you and Pelicles seem to overlook something that could have been used against Nkrumah other than the ballot and the gun.

That something is Nkrumah's own invention - POSITIVE ACTION!!!

SAS, you and Pelicles seem to overlook something that could have been used against Nkrumah other than the ballot and the gun.

That something is Nkrumah's own invention - POSITIVE ACTION!!!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

I agree Bro. The positive action is the coup! That was the most positive action under the circumstances.

I agree Bro. The positive action is the coup! That was the most positive action under the circumstances.
G. K. Berko 11 years ago

Dr., are you not overlooking the right to congregate and engage in peaceful demonstration? Civil Disobedience does not, necessarily, have to be violent; it could entail a quiet withdrawal of services culminating in a Public g ...
read full comment

Dr., are you not overlooking the right to congregate and engage in peaceful demonstration? Civil Disobedience does not, necessarily, have to be violent; it could entail a quiet withdrawal of services culminating in a Public gathering in which the participants hold placards to express their opinion.

To me personally, a Dictator is a Dictator, whether brutal or benign. But I do envisage some challenge to your conclusive characterization that Nkrumah was a 'brutal' Dictator, while he might have been only trying to survive the umprovoked terror against him.

I still do not see you refuting all the charges of unwarranted assassination attempts against a legally elected President. You insist on Nkrumah being a 'brutal' Dictator. Apart from what most of us already know about his dictatorial behavior, what personal evidence do you table to substantiate your characterization?

I understand how folks who have suffered more directly from one Nkrumah's high-handed action or another, would ride on the crest of vengeance to object any suggestion of him being even a benign Dictator, let alone a non-Dictator. Similarly, others who probably suffered violent actions by the Opposition would not seal the emotional vent in their rejection of any dictatorial characterization of the late President.

So, the debate may never end with a winner. However, your deliberate stringing of data to prove Nkrumah's mismanagement to your claim that he is a 'brutal, dictator, without considering any externuating factors that might justify his dictatorial behavior, strongly suggests an endemic hatred you have for the man, possibly from your association with some of his past opposing leaders and their institutions of those days. I would hardly expect anyone close to Dombo or Busia or Danquah or S. G. Anto reserve an iota of praise for Nkrumah in their heart. Similarly, I would not Nkrumah's family or close associates sing praises to any of those Opponents of his above.

But any objective analysis of data, not deliberately selected to show bias, might tell a different story about the man.

And, oh, Dr., Please, don't get stuck with cliches. "3ny3 ne3ma nyinaa na wo poto gum, anaa wo hwie gu mu kwa a ne d3 y3 p3." Ne3ma bi wo ho a, ehia s3 y3 poto gum' abere biara".

Long Live Ghana!!!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

I have enumerated some of Nkrumah's wrongful deeds in my post below. I myself had no personal experience of Nkrumah's rule since I was three years when he was overthrown. But the historical data is there for us to analyze.... ...
read full comment

I have enumerated some of Nkrumah's wrongful deeds in my post below. I myself had no personal experience of Nkrumah's rule since I was three years when he was overthrown. But the historical data is there for us to analyze....
My late father Kwasi Agyei intentionally sited a house he built for my late mother Akua Sarpomaa deep in the bush, so that he could sit there quietly and safely to ventilate against Nkrumah! He said to my mother after completing the house, "3ha de3 wotena y3 Nkrumah a 3y3 d3!"
I don't have any problem praising Nkrumah for what he did right; likewise, I don't have any problem criticizing him for what he did wrong. Fortunately, I am not a product of his brainwashing machinery.
CARDINAL 11 years ago

G.K, you seem to forget that Nkrumah has banned congregation and any sort of demonstration. When People who have tried to do exactly what you are suggesting have been arrested and detained for years without trial, the power o ...
read full comment

G.K, you seem to forget that Nkrumah has banned congregation and any sort of demonstration. When People who have tried to do exactly what you are suggesting have been arrested and detained for years without trial, the power of the Army was being diminished and transferred to Nkrumah's preferred Republican guard set up to guard him, he Nkrumah had created a lot of enemies for himself.

Don't also forget that Nkrumah had accused Kotoka of diamond smuggling when Kotoka was in Congo during the Congo expedition and Nkrumah has broached to his confidantes before leaving for Vietnam that he intends to arrest and detain him Kotoka which also played a major part in the army to topple his administration.

Why Nkrumah declared himself President for life is hard for me to understand when he has previously won elections massively whether legitimately or fraudulently and could have done so for many years is beyond my understanding. Whatever good he did, declaring himself life President made the coup a welcome alternative.
BEN, Takoradi 11 years ago

Well said

Well said
Zuale 11 years ago

It is undeniable and undisputable facts that Kwame Nkrumah imprisoned all those he sadly thought were threats to his unparallel tyrany and tortured them to death. He even denied them decent burial by the relatives.

He decl ...
read full comment

It is undeniable and undisputable facts that Kwame Nkrumah imprisoned all those he sadly thought were threats to his unparallel tyrany and tortured them to death. He even denied them decent burial by the relatives.

He declresd himself a messiah, President for life without a Vice President nad introduced one-party state to Africa which is still causing havoc. Look at Gambia, Zimbabwe and many African countries. He studied in US and UK but came back to Africa as if he had never heard about democracy and ruled with iron fist. All dictators like Hitler, Amin, Gadaffi and Kwame Nkrumah can only be removed by force in digrace
OKAY 11 years ago

What do you want or intend to achieve by this? You should be ashamed of yourself. I do know & believe you are a typical Akan. No doubt.

What do you want or intend to achieve by this? You should be ashamed of yourself. I do know & believe you are a typical Akan. No doubt.
CARDINAL 11 years ago

He just wanted the truth to be told and not the lies Ghanaians have been fed about Nkrumah's utopia which is a mirage.

He just wanted the truth to be told and not the lies Ghanaians have been fed about Nkrumah's utopia which is a mirage.
Vodoo Xebieso 11 years ago

Carinal, here is the truth you may not like to hear:

The man was a man of vision and a born ruler and leader.

Just consider the structures and infrastructures he initiated before his inglorious overthrow by the reaction ...
read full comment

Carinal, here is the truth you may not like to hear:

The man was a man of vision and a born ruler and leader.

Just consider the structures and infrastructures he initiated before his inglorious overthrow by the reactionaries - the Akosombo Dam, Ghana Nautical College, Pre-Fab Factory to speed up housing the people (which went into operation and was churning out 120 housing units monthly), countless Teacher Training Colleges, Technical Schools, Secondary Schools, GIHOC, GNTC,GNCC, Black Star Line, Ghana Airways, State Fishing Corporation, State Farms, Ghana Institute of Journalism, Accra-Tema Motorway. As an aside, the Accra-Tema Motorway was the beginning of a first class road network to link up the whole country.

The so-called debts of Nkrumah were mere fabrications to demonize the man and cast aspersions on his person.
agood one 11 years ago

What do you hope to achieve by this? No doubt, it is coming from a typical Akan man like your type. Do not worry. Another one is in the offing should you by mistake come to power and we would see how you cap that.

What do you hope to achieve by this? No doubt, it is coming from a typical Akan man like your type. Do not worry. Another one is in the offing should you by mistake come to power and we would see how you cap that.
Yusuf 11 years ago

You just want to live in the dream of Nkrumah lies. The truth is coming out.

You just want to live in the dream of Nkrumah lies. The truth is coming out.
Harry Eghan 11 years ago

Just because Nkrumah wanted tobr the President of Africa for life, he ruled Ghana with terror and fear and any one who did not sing his praise or owrshipped him through Nkrumaism the person was imprisoned or chased into exile ...
read full comment

Just because Nkrumah wanted tobr the President of Africa for life, he ruled Ghana with terror and fear and any one who did not sing his praise or owrshipped him through Nkrumaism the person was imprisoned or chased into exile.

We inherited 400 million pouds from Britain in 1957 but Nkrumah used most of this to nurtured his mad ambition to be life President of Africa by giving tens of millions of ponds to his crony Sekou Toure of Gunea and the President for Mali (Ghana/Guinea/Mali) Look at his Young Pioneers which poluted and poisoned the minds of the young ones.

The best thing that has ever happened to Ghana was the overthrow of the tyrant and evil Kwame Nkrumah. His own son even described CPP as a sunken ship
azintakanyatinka 11 years ago

The retrogressive coup. Like it or not, so far, Nkrumah is the only selfless and visionary leader Ghana had.

The retrogressive coup. Like it or not, so far, Nkrumah is the only selfless and visionary leader Ghana had.
OKOE 11 years ago

WELL DR. NKRUMAH LUMBERS IN PEACE. AFTER ALL THE COUPS, GHANA IS WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE. AFTER THE COUP EVERYBODY IS HAPPY TODAY AND THERE IS ABUDANCE OF FOOD AND MONEY. THERE ARE NO CORRUPTION. OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS WILL BE SE ...
read full comment

WELL DR. NKRUMAH LUMBERS IN PEACE. AFTER ALL THE COUPS, GHANA IS WHAT YOU WANT IT TO BE. AFTER THE COUP EVERYBODY IS HAPPY TODAY AND THERE IS ABUDANCE OF FOOD AND MONEY. THERE ARE NO CORRUPTION. OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS WILL BE SENDING FOOD AND ALL THE GOODIES AS USUAL. A PERSON CANNOT BE A DICTATOR AND BE HOLDING ELECTIONS. I WILL SAY IT AGAIN THAT IT IS THE WORLD THAT CAN JUDGE WHETHER OR NOT A HEAD OF STATE IS GOOD OR NOT. I HOPE ALL OF YOU HAVING RECEIVED THE GOODIES FROM OUR FOREIGN FRIENDS ARE FEELING GOOD TODAY. MR. GBEDEMAH WAS WITH DR. NKRUMAH, HOW WAS HE ALLOWED TO FORM A POLITICAL PARTY WHEN HE WAS A MEMBER OF THE CPP? GHANA GOT WHAT WE WISHED FOR. I CAN WELL REMEMBER THE DAYS I HAVE TO LEAVE MY OFFICE TO LINE UP FOR 6 TINS OF MILK AND A PACKET OF SUGAR FOR SO MANY HOURS. I WAS NOT ALONE. MANY CIVIL SERVANTS WERE DOING THE SAME. TO CONCLUDE, YOU GET WHAT YOU WISHED FOR. NOBODY IS COMPLAINING ANYMORE AS LIFE IS GOOD. ENJOY YOUR 1966 COUP!
OKOE 11 years ago

WE WERE LEFT WITH MONEY AFTER INDEPENDENCE, YES. ALL GHANAIANS MUST ASK THEMSELVES, WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM FOR MERIDIAN HOTEL, TEMA. STAR HOTEL, AMBASSADOR HOTEL, AKOSOMBO. PEDUASE LODGE, VOLTA HOTEL, BLACK STAR LINE, ...
read full comment

WE WERE LEFT WITH MONEY AFTER INDEPENDENCE, YES. ALL GHANAIANS MUST ASK THEMSELVES, WHERE DID THE MONEY COME FROM FOR MERIDIAN HOTEL, TEMA. STAR HOTEL, AMBASSADOR HOTEL, AKOSOMBO. PEDUASE LODGE, VOLTA HOTEL, BLACK STAR LINE, GHANA AIRWAYS, GNTC BUILDING, TEMA HARBOUR, TEMA MOTORWAY, UNIVERSITIES, SECONDARY SCHOOLS, AKOSOMBO POWER PLANT. TEMA TOWNSHIP AND MANY MORE. KWAME NKRUMAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. IF THESE PEOPLE WANT TO JUSTIFY THEIR COUPS, LET THEM. FOLKS, I WAS A STUDENT DURING THE CPP YEARS AND IF ANYONE WILL TELL ME THAT THERE WAS MORE ATROCITIES BEFORE THE COUP THEN THAT PERSON WAS DECEIVING YOU. ASK THE MOKOLA WOMEN AND DETENTIONS AND BULLDOZING MOKOLA MARKET. YOU MAY NOT BE BORNE IN THOSE DAYS. ONE CANNOT BE PROUDER AS A GHANAIAN DURING DR. NKRUMAH YEARS. PEOPLE WERE ATTENDING SCHOOLS FREE AND MOST OF US BECAME WHAT WE ARE TODAY IF NOT FOR DR. NKRUMAH. THE BOMB THROWERS WILL TELL YOU A DIFFERENT STORY BUT NOT THE TRUTH. ASK THEM WHETHER THE THINGS I ENUMERATED ABOVE ARE TRUE AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF. DR. NKRUMAH ESTABLISHED FACTORIES AND INDUSTRIES AS A FOUNDATION FOR INDUSTRIALIZATION. WE LOVE THE WORD CAPITALISM, BUT WHERE ARE OUR CAPITALISTS. COPYING SOMEONES LIFESTYLE IS EASY. SHOW ME YOUR SUBSTANCE AND I WILL BELIEVE YOU. IF THOSE DETRACTORS OF GHANA MUST TELL ME WHERE ARE THOSE FACTORIES DR. NKRUMAH ESTABLISHED. THE GAS MUST KNOW CPP IS WHERE THEY BELONG AND MUST EMBRACE IT. IF FOR NO OTHER REASON BUT THAT IT DID A LOT OF GOOD FOR YOUR CAPITAL CITY. HE COULD HAVE DONE MORE IF WE LET HIM. I KNOW OF THE PLAN HE SET FOR THE CAPITAL BUT YOUR DETRACTORS PREVENTED HIM TO DO SO. DR. NKRUMAH WAS YOUR MAN AND HIS LEGACY IS YOUR LEGACY. FORWARD EVER BACKWARD NEVER. YOU CAN VILIFY HIM ALL YOU WANT, BUT THE TRUTH STILL REMAINS. HIS ACHIEVEMENTS WILL BEAR TESTIMONY.
Pelicles 11 years ago

The record is there to see that Nkrumah borrowed to construct the Akosombo Dam. As you have analyzed his achievements, just tell us what he did wrong? Remember that Nkrumah did not do anything with his own money but rather, ...
read full comment

The record is there to see that Nkrumah borrowed to construct the Akosombo Dam. As you have analyzed his achievements, just tell us what he did wrong? Remember that Nkrumah did not do anything with his own money but rather, he use our money to embark on a fruitless attempt to unite and rule Africa at time commonsense tells us was impossible.

What are leaders elected to do? They are elected to rule with the "the rule of law and with polices that will make the lives of the people better". There should be room for opposition else, why didn't God put Satan away for good for opposing him in anyway possible to extent that he made man rebelled against God?

Those of you who see nothing wrong with Nkrumah are refusing to accept the fact that we suffering from the mistakes he made.
Sir Jones 11 years ago

No coup d'état is good,better or best.Your justification for coup d'etat is shocking as a legal practitioner.You need to go back to Law school.You have more work to do.

No coup d'état is good,better or best.Your justification for coup d'etat is shocking as a legal practitioner.You need to go back to Law school.You have more work to do.
Daniel Somuah 11 years ago

All your responses to the rantings of short-sighted Dr Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Cardinal and others are very impressive.Thank you.

All your responses to the rantings of short-sighted Dr Samuel Adjei Sarfo, Cardinal and others are very impressive.Thank you.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

Kwame Nkrumah was a visionary extraordinary whose genius dwarfs all the leaders after him. We can justify his industrial and infrastructural development of the country one way or the other. We can even grant that he is the be ...
read full comment

Kwame Nkrumah was a visionary extraordinary whose genius dwarfs all the leaders after him. We can justify his industrial and infrastructural development of the country one way or the other. We can even grant that he is the best leader Ghana has ever had.
However, those ready to make him a god should note the following:
1. He built the largest prison in Africa, not to accommodate criminals, but to jail his political opponents.

2. He took away the natural right of habeas corpus by causing to be enacted the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), the power to imprison his political opponents without trial.

3. He fired the Chief Justice and annulled supreme court decisions that were unfavorable to him.

4. He banned all competing political parties and declared Ghana one-party state.

5. He created a personality cult by putting his effigy on Ghana's currency and establishing brain-washing institutions whose residual effects are still found in some of our scholars of today.

6. He made himself life-president, taking the sovereignty from the people, and leaving just men with no alternative for a peaceful change of government except through his violent overthrow.

7. He neglected the business of the state in pursuit of his over-weaning ambition to rule Africa and to turn it into a communistic dictatorship which he had already begun to experiment in Ghana.
8. He banned freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press and all other freedoms to which a free and democratic people are justly entitled.

For these deadly sins, Nkrumah deserved to be overthrown because freedom is a fundamental and inherent right of all humankind, and no known acievement will ever trump it. Indeed, the 1966 coup goes down in history as the most justified and justifiable. After this coup, there was no need for any other coup. While Nkrumah is the best leader Ghana ever had, he was also the worst dictator Ghana ever had. Academic dunderheads may choose to apotheosize the man without mentioning his faults, but they neither educate nor fool anybody as their bias is treated with contempt by the intellectually insightful. For those daily assailed by the rebel passion to worship something, Nkrumah may be a perfect idol forever occupying their heads. After all, he made sure to screw up their heads for all time. But to some of us, the man epitomizes our political conundrum since he is so unsurpassable in both his virtues and his vice...
Ben, TAKORADI 11 years ago

The coup was designed to bring Busia and co to power. Kotoka was fooled, used and eliminated. Several of Nkrumah's and CPP projects, including schools, which were rejected by Busia and Danquah are sustaining Ghana until today ...
read full comment

The coup was designed to bring Busia and co to power. Kotoka was fooled, used and eliminated. Several of Nkrumah's and CPP projects, including schools, which were rejected by Busia and Danquah are sustaining Ghana until today.
Abena Kwabena 11 years ago

Okoe, you have forgotten that Nkrumah was Dictator,

Okoe, you have forgotten that Nkrumah was Dictator,
Ben, TAKORADI 11 years ago

What happened to Africa and Busia?

What happened to Africa and Busia?
Mohutu Heyhey Heyso 11 years ago

Long live LTS ARTHUR AND YEBOAH, the people's avengers who made minced meat of the "Good Coup"!

May Afrifa and Kotoka keep rotting in hell!

Long live LTS ARTHUR AND YEBOAH, the people's avengers who made minced meat of the "Good Coup"!

May Afrifa and Kotoka keep rotting in hell!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 11 years ago

Below is a nice rebuttal which Prof. Asare (Kwaku Azar) gave to those trying to justify Nkrumah's dictatorship, "Soon after winning the 1951 elections, Nkrumah outlawed the UGCC. His motto was CPP is Ghana and he set out with ...
read full comment

Below is a nice rebuttal which Prof. Asare (Kwaku Azar) gave to those trying to justify Nkrumah's dictatorship, "Soon after winning the 1951 elections, Nkrumah outlawed the UGCC. His motto was CPP is Ghana and he set out with his CiPPification agenda, which entailed going after leading opposition members.

It was Nkrumah's outlawing of a nationalist party, after the 1951 elections, that led to the mushrooming of regional parties, such as the NPP (Northern People's party), etc.

Nkrumah's urge to control was not directed at the opposition only. He devoured his own Party members, who had the chutzpah to dissent.

The Ga incident, which probably was the immediate excuse for the PDA, must be recounted here.

The Ga community's resolution in 1956 that dissent was not allowed in the CPP and that the Party had marginalized them was revived on a grand scale in July 1957. At a rally attended by Nii Amunakwa II and Nai Wulomo, the Osagyefo was publicly denounced, unheard of in the CPP.

To make matters interesting, the Tokyo Joes (Ga wing of the Veranda boys) decided to continue with the denunciation and to do so while Osagyefo returned from a trip from the Commonwealth of Nations. They gathered at a number of points at the Castle carrying placards, many of which read "Welcome Mr. Dictator."

It was because of this rebellion that ultimately explains the PDAfication of Coffie Crabbe, Tawia Adamafio, Dzenkle Dzewu, Ako Adjei, etc., not the phony charges that is usually attached to the PDA.

Friends, when Nkrumah was jailed in the early 1950s, it was his friend Komla Gbedemah who ran the CPP and led the CPP to victory in 1951. At various times, Gbedema was in charge of propaganda, Evening Times, Finance, etc. Gbedema was the brain in CPP. What happened to him?

In 1961, Gbedema had seen enough of this destruction of political allies. Nkrumah had introduced a bill to create a Special Court whose decision will be beyond appeal. Speaking strongly against this bill, Gbedemah lamented how the PDA had been used as an instrument to foul the political landscape and how too many innocent people were languishing in jail. The PDA went after him, although Gbedema had arranged with Mark Cofie to drive him out of the country. Afro Gbede too became a victim.

What happened when Nkrumah prosecuted his CPP friends for trying to bomb him? Nkrumah's intelligence revealed that Kulungugu was the work of the extreme leftist group in the CPP. He held Tawia Adamafio, Coffie Crabbe and Ako Adjei responsible for the plot. These three were prosecuted but found not guilty, leading Nkrumah to fire Sir Arku Korsah, then Chief Justice. Nkrumah was later to declare the Court's judgement null and void after Parliament had quickly amended the Criminal Procedure Act in December to empower him to quash Court's decision retroactively and prospectively.

My friends, anybody who can think at all understands that in our countries, the State has immense powers and can quickly use the Police and Judicial process to deal with so-called bad behavior. If Nkrumah had evidence against traitors, they could have gone to Court, rather than convert themselves into accussers, prosecutors and judges.

Why did they not go to the Courts? Simple. The Courts are not some arena for settling political differences. You need facts and evidence before you can rob a man of his rights. The Awaitey case that comrade Nelson mentioned was laughable. The evidence against Antor and Ayeke and Amponsah was as laughable as comrade Nelson's write-up. None of those cases could withstand judicial scrutiny! And if Nkrumah could not get the Courts to detain his enemies, then he himself would, hence the PDA.

Friends, let us stop our hero-worshipping. Nkrumah was brilliant in his fight for independence (although if the British had used a PDA, he'd probably not accomplish much). But like many african leaders then, he thought Ghana was his after we had won independence. That was sadly untrue and that was to explain his PDA, One party State, etc and ultimately 24th February 1966.

It is sad that we continue to justify PDA in 2006, something Gbedema and many of Nkrumah's ardent followers rejected as far back as the early 1960s.

Let us remember that independence was not won by Nkrumah. It was a process that started as far back as the 19th century with the work of Caseley Hayford, Mensah sarbah, Paa Grant and others. This work was to be continued by Danquah, Awoonor Williams, Obetsebi Lamptey, Ofori Atta and Nkrumah.

One person had to be President/prime minister at Independence but that one person did not become God, osagyefo, the Fountain of Honor or any of that stuff that afflicts megalamonic leaders.

81 Comments

Welcome,

SIGN IN

Welcome,

RESET PASSWORD

Hello,

Terms and conditions

REGISTER

The best coup d’etat in Ghana. Part one

Read Comments .st0{display:none;fill:#14BDD3;} .st1{display:none;} .st2{display:inline;fill:#FC0F0F;} .st3{display:inline;fill:#FFFFFF;} .st4{display:inline;fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:6;stroke-miterlimit:10;} Comments (81)

Read Comments Comments (81)