The Tales of June 4 and The 1948 Riots

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• Pelicles 10 years ago

  The June 4th riots by the Junior ranks of the Ghana armed forces, was a hungry prank to disturb Ghanaians. Unlike the 1948 riots, those who were gunned down by the colonial masters had a genuine case meaning, they were going ...
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  The June 4th riots by the Junior ranks of the Ghana armed forces, was a hungry prank to disturb Ghanaians. Unlike the 1948 riots, those who were gunned down by the colonial masters had a genuine case meaning, they were going to demand unpaid salaries etc.
  
  That said, Ghana is at a cross road. Why? The answer is not that simple but the only thing that I can say is, we the people should change our mindset else, no experiment will work for us.
  
  Let me add that if we fear to allow laid down rules and regulations to work, {by that I means " the laws"} we cannot see the promise land.
  
  We understand that greed and corruption is the main obstacles impeding our onward march so, why can't we put a lid on those vices and drop it into the Atlantic Ocean?
  
  An armed robber cannot stop that trade because he/she love it and so are Ghanaians. We love to be corrupt and greed hence nothing being done to stamp it.

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  Pelicles,
  You caught it, but did not quite say it!
  
  WE SAY: Even by the authors' record, it is rather odd to compare the 1948 riots to the "4 June riots" of 1979.
  
  In fact, being a "hungry prank to disturb Ghanaians", i ...
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  Pelicles,
  You caught it, but did not quite say it!
  
  WE SAY: Even by the authors' record, it is rather odd to compare the 1948 riots to the "4 June riots" of 1979.
  
  In fact, being a "hungry prank to disturb Ghanaians", it is pathetic to compare the two as equal - equally patriotic, or even useful.

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  We have quite a bit of historical records here!
  
  But we are uncertain what the total picture is, what the Asante Forjour, or Justice Ghana intended. But we can see some purposeful, selective editing in there that shows atte ...
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  We have quite a bit of historical records here!
  
  But we are uncertain what the total picture is, what the Asante Forjour, or Justice Ghana intended. But we can see some purposeful, selective editing in there that shows attempt to deceive, hold information that allows readers to have a clearer perspective
  
  
  READ PARAGRAPH 8, of "COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS":
  "...Our history has it that the national strikes were among others, in protest against rises in the cost of living following the introduction of an austerity budget in July, and notably against a compulsory savings scheme. We mention in passing that as usual leading opposition members such as Dr. J. B. Danquah and Mr. Joe Appiah were some of the suspects and subjected to arrest, including Mr. Patrick Quaidoo- a CPP Cabinet member until May 1961. President Nkrumah cut short his holiday in the U.S.S.R. to return to Ghana on 16.September and on 28 September also asked six members of his Government, including two Cabinet Ministers (Mr K. A. Gbedemah and Mr Kojo Botsio), to resign in view of what he termed as their “varied business connexions”; that six other Ministers and members of the Government had accepted his request that they should surrender parts of their assets to the State; and that he had drawn the attention of the Speaker of the National Assembly to “the extensive nature of his business interests.” [xx]..."
  
  
  THEN THIS FROM 1961, THE ACCURATE & COMPLETE RECORD FROM STANFORD UNIVERSITY'S "Keesing's Record of World Events":
  
  TITLE: Internal Developments. - Strike against Government's Austerity Programme. - Government Changes. - Detention of Opposition Leaders.
  
  READ
  "...Strikes involving thousands of railway, dock, and other workers broke out on Sept. 4, at the twin towns of Sekondi and Takoradi, subsequently spreading to Accra and Kumasi. While some of the strikers returned to work after a week, most did not go back until Sept. 22, after appeals and warnings by President Nkrumah, who had cut short a holiday in the U.S.S.R.to return to Ghana on Sept. 16. The strikes were in protest against rises in the cost of living following the
  introduction of an austerity budget in July, and notably against a compulsory savings scheme...//
  //...President Nkrumah announced on Sept. 28 that he had asked six members of his Government, including two Cabinet Ministers (Mr. K. A. Gbedemah and Mr. Kojo Botsio), to resign in view of their “varied business connexions”; that six other Ministers and members of the Government had accepted his request that they should surrender parts of their assets to the State; and that he had drawn the attention of the Speaker of the National Assembly to “the extensive nature of his
  business interests.” Dr. Nkrumah carried out an extensive governmental reorganization two days later...//
  //...A number of prominent Opposition personalities, leaders of the recent strike, and others, were arrested on Oct. 3 under the Preventive Detention Act after the discovery of an alleged plot to murder Dr. Nkrumah and other Ministers. Those arrested included Dr. J. B. Danquah, United Party candidate in the 1960 presidential election; Mr. Joe Appiah, deputy leader of the Opposition and son-in-law of the late Sir Stafford Cripps; other leading United Party members;
  and Mr. Patrick Quaidoo, who was a member of Dr. Nkrurnah's Cabinet until May 1961..."
  SOURCE: www.web.stanford.edu/group/tomzgroup/pmwiki/uploads/1417-1961-11-KS-a-RCW.pdf
  
  WE SAY: Folks, that is the record. You do not have to ask for the source from us. More important:
  1. This record shows that Nkrumah has a distate for corruption and was reasy and willing to use his political capital to stop corruption and theft of public resources in their tracks, within his government.
  2. Dr. J. B. Danquah, Mr. Joe Appiah, other leading United Party members, and Mr. Patrick Quaidoo (a member of Dr. Nkrumah's Cabinet until May 1961) were arrested under the PDA not for organizing strikes, but were suspected of being accomplices to a "plot to murder Dr. Nkrumah and other Ministers."
  
  
  THE THIS FROM Asante ForjourJusticeGhana:
  "...Thus, whatever we are doing or whichever position we find yourself in Ghana, we ought to pause for a moment and to reflect, whether our [in]actions measure up to the ideals and principles of June 4 1979..."
  
  
  WE SAY: What a low bar! What a fraud of a low bar! How, we must ask, does the Rawling's approach compare to Nkrumah approach? So tell us, Asante Forjour/JusticeGhana how Rawlings accounted for his owership of government assets, and his funding of his childrn's education abroad while he lives in Ghana, without a visible business to show. What accounting do we have?

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• Kwadwo 10 years ago

  What is that? Is that tantamount to corruption or a pretext to get rid of political opponents by Nkrumah? If they were corrupt, why didn't Nkrumah charge and try them? Throw in the arrest of Danquah and others in light of th ...
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  What is that? Is that tantamount to corruption or a pretext to get rid of political opponents by Nkrumah? If they were corrupt, why didn't Nkrumah charge and try them? Throw in the arrest of Danquah and others in light of the strikes and it becomes clear that Nkrumah will find every flimsy excuse to use the PDA to silence the opposition. So Lungu, buzz off with this unconvincing defense of Nkrumah concerning the dismissal of those ministers and the arrest of Danquah and Joe Appiah.

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  Maybe you need to spend some time to read the source we provided, without your asking!
  
  ITEM: At least Nkrumah did not have them shot in the square!
  
  He only asked them to resign from his government, which Nkrumah had th ...
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  Maybe you need to spend some time to read the source we provided, without your asking!
  
  ITEM: At least Nkrumah did not have them shot in the square!
  
  He only asked them to resign from his government, which Nkrumah had the right to do.
  
  So, what is your complaint?
  
  
  For self-seeking and "unscrupulous" J. B Danquah and his clique, they were charged for attempt to kill/subvert the government!
  
  That is what, actually!
  
  What don't you understand about that?

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• Kwadwo 10 years ago

  ...Queen Elizabeth II made her visit to Ghana. While inspecting the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital in Kumasi, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and President Kwame Nkrumah passed by the boy's bed. Since he had a picture of his ...
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  ...Queen Elizabeth II made her visit to Ghana. While inspecting the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital in Kumasi, the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and President Kwame Nkrumah passed by the boy's bed. Since he had a picture of his parents displayed on his bedside table, the Duke , who had visited Kumasi previously and had met Peggy Appiah, turned back, as he was leaving, to send his regards. President Nkrumah's reported anger at being embarrassed in this way - this was the husband of a foreign head of state sending greeting to the wife of a man Nkrumah had in political detention - was reportedly one of the reasons that Kwame Appiah's doctor was deported...
  
  This is what I don't understand about your messiah, Nkrumah. It is this character trait that caused him to incarcerate his perceived political enemies without trial and culminated in the deportation of this perhaps soviet doctor. I guess this poor doctor was also " unscrupulous" and deserved what he got.

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• Prof Lungu 10 years ago

  You are dwelling on the obscure, and trivial. In addition, you are shaving your information, and neglecting to provide your source(s).
  
  You are mis-representing the information and failing to attriute.
  
  
  WE READ: "...Pr ...
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  You are dwelling on the obscure, and trivial. In addition, you are shaving your information, and neglecting to provide your source(s).
  
  You are mis-representing the information and failing to attriute.
  
  
  WE READ: "...President Nkrumah's reported anger at being embarrassed in this way -this was the husband of a foreign head of state sending a greeting to the wife of a man Nkrumah had in political detention – was reportedly one of the reasons that Kwame Appiah's doctor was deported.[citation needed]..."
  
  So, where is your citation, Kwadwo?
  
  We are done with this, and you!
  
  Greetings!

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• Kwadwo 10 years ago

  Lungu, read Wikipedia on Peggy Cripps Appiah, the wife of Joe Appiah you had indicted and vilified in your comment. This is not trivial as you put it

  Lungu, read Wikipedia on Peggy Cripps Appiah, the wife of Joe Appiah you had indicted and vilified in your comment. This is not trivial as you put it

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• Jamaase ne Krobo 10 years ago

  Okatakyie warned Kutu.
  The boys who did them in are now in power. Murderous faux-Marxist-Leninist then, they are, today, post-ideological capitalist-roaders. They have no shame! But the more cautious of the miserable lot (J ...
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  Okatakyie warned Kutu.
  The boys who did them in are now in power. Murderous faux-Marxist-Leninist then, they are, today, post-ideological capitalist-roaders. They have no shame! But the more cautious of the miserable lot (John, Jima, Gman,) know the day of reckoning is inevitable. If it does not consume them tomorrow, it soon will consume their children and their children's children.
  Today's corruption is what they bequeathed to Ghana. And that now scares them enough to spout their nonsensical exhortations and platitudes? Any Ghanaian old enough to have seen these beggars before June 4, 1979 is asking how the hell did they acquire all that ostentatious wealth they flaunt in our faces? Have you seen how Rawlings and his creatures actually live? And how disdainfully they look down upon us, even as they lectures us their perverse civics? These "filthy" rich brigands!!!
  Aduro akyere bonsam ne n'enma.
  Assassie kasa. You know it will come. Don't shore up your sand castles.
  Baafuoh has warned his June 4 elite!!

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• Yaw Bediako, Italy 10 years ago

  Did you read what Prof. Lungu wrote regarding the arrest of Danquah and others? Now read this:
  
  "Dr. J. B. Danquah, Mr. Joe Appiah, other leading United Party members, and Mr. Patrick Quaidoo (a member of Dr. Nkrumah's Cabi ...
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  Did you read what Prof. Lungu wrote regarding the arrest of Danquah and others? Now read this:
  
  "Dr. J. B. Danquah, Mr. Joe Appiah, other leading United Party members, and Mr. Patrick Quaidoo (a member of Dr. Nkrumah's Cabinet until May 1961) were arrested under the PDA not for organizing strikes, but were suspected of being accomplices to a "plot to murder Dr. Nkrumah and other Ministers."
  
  In fact, meetings were held in Danquah's residence Accra in connection with coup plots and assassination of Nkrumah and some
  CPP leaders. You get that?

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• Menua Kwadwo 10 years ago

  How do you know what you have just written here? Is it from court proceedings, or radio announcements? Why do people still support PDAs? I wish these people become victims of PDA.

  How do you know what you have just written here? Is it from court proceedings, or radio announcements? Why do people still support PDAs? I wish these people become victims of PDA.

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• Bujie 10 years ago

  This Baffour Assasie Gyimay you are talking about is a drug Baron, they assisted ruby and co in the drug trade at Nacob or whatever the call themselves.
  It was the British who busted them before he started making noise and b ...
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  This Baffour Assasie Gyimay you are talking about is a drug Baron, they assisted ruby and co in the drug trade at Nacob or whatever the call themselves.
  It was the British who busted them before he started making noise and bla bla bla.
  He is one of the richest poultry farmers in Ghana, ask him how many houses he owns and look at how fat and ugly he has become since his NDc are in power
  He should thank francis opoku and dr Amo for he and his boses lives

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• Fred 10 years ago

  All what you Naval Captain Baffour Assasie -Gyimah have said is THE PERFECT TRUTH. Our politicians are just playing with we Ghanaians, but they should know that one day Ghanaians who are known in foreign countries as kind, p ...
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  All what you Naval Captain Baffour Assasie -Gyimah have said is THE PERFECT TRUTH. Our politicians are just playing with we Ghanaians, but they should know that one day Ghanaians who are known in foreign countries as kind, peaceful and good people will soon and I SAY VERY SOON rise up and call YOU (ALL POLITICAL LEADERS) to account for all the hardships you have caused us ,the poor common man who have placed their hopes in you to at least change their lives into a little more better one than what they were in before you came to power.

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