By: Dauda Mohammed Suru
The Founder’s Day celebration is gone with all its problems, challenges, difficulties and excitements. We look forward to marking the 106th Birthday anniversary of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah – the illustrious son of Africa, who offered his life as ransom for the freedom of black and oppressed people.
As the practice is, many comrades made new resolutions just as we were climaxing the celebrations. There is nothing wrong with making new resolutions which are intended to make the Nkrumaist live united and better organised – two factors that are crucial for the preservations of the ideals of the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The problem however lies with the honesy of this practice. For whilst some organisations strive very hard to live up to their intentions, others have their intentions broken almost immediately they have been made.
It is not enough to make declarations, whether good or otherwise. Declarations in defence of the ideals of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should be carried out in spite of all difficulties and inconveniences or sacrifices involved in doing so. That, in its self will be a testimony to the strength of the Nkrumaist front.
As we close the chapters on the 105th Birthday anniversary of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, we cannot do better than reflect seriously on some of the matters arising from the celebrations.
Among the issues that gained some attention was the talk about how the Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should be celebrated and by whom? For me, the call for the suspension of the 1992 constitution simple because it protects people involved in the February 1966 unconstitutional coup d’ tat is a misplaced argument. The Nkrumaist should avoid any move that will suggest that the judgment during the referendum to approve the 1992 constitution was wrong. Yes, historical accounts tell how some of these indemnity clauses were smuggled into the document. But it appears the plot succeeded largely because of the lack of vigilance on the part of Nkrumaist whilst some actively participated in that plot. We are reaping the bitter fruits of some kind of laziness from the Progressive front and people must spare us more distractions. In any case, those who have been covered by the indemnity clauses in 1966 are almost all dead with the possible exception of Deku, the police officer so what is the point fighting a dead person when we should be organising our energies to confront the many political fakes like Mr. Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI Ghana – who still believe that the independence struggle was rushed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
The other matter arising I like to focus on is the strenuous attempts by some people among the Nkrumaist family to create divisions all the time for no reasons. Rumor mongering, malicious attacks and incoherence are what they are interested in. surprisingly, these things are practiced and indulged in, in even certain unexpected circles and by some individuals expected to know better.
Right now, a very bitter and wicked campaign is being waged by some people within the Nkrumaist front with the hopes of grounding our efforts. They must be told that they are too late and that soon they shall be exposed and opposed.
Until about 10 years ago when the Socialist Forum of Ghana established an annual lecture in collaboration with progressive organisations, women’s and youth groups to commemorates the official Birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Founder of our nation, nobody was heard talking about the relevance of the 21st September. Today, rather than all of us uniting in our efforts to demonstrate how the vision and ideals of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is still relevant to meeting the aspirations of the people of Ghana, there are people who for undisclosed reasons are busy creating divisions among the ranks.
Who are no true Nkrumaist in this country apart from these hypocrites? One would have thought that all those, especially political actors who claim loyalty to the teachings of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah would have orgainsed themselves to all the activities including the Friday September 19th lecture at the Accra International Conference Centre. Instead, what did we see, they boycotted it.
The matters arising from the 105th Birthday anniversary are so vast that it would be difficult to deal with all of them within a single piece. However, I would take this opportunity to appeal to comrades, friends and sympathizers of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to disregard those who have nothing to lose if we fail in the struggle to preserve the works and ideals of the founder of modern Ghana – Kwame Nkrumah.
Soon, we shall be marking the February 24th event – the darkest period in the history of Ghana as well as the 8th Pan African Congress scheduled to be hosted in Ghana. We can achieve the vision of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah only with hard work and united front.
