E/R CPP: Blame ’66 coup makers for Ghana’s misery

The Eastern Regional Branch of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has blamed those behind the 1966 overthrow of Dr Kwame Nkrumah for Ghana's present predicaments.

In a press statement issued on Wednesday 24, February to observe the 50 anniversary of the putsch, the Eastern Regional wing of the party indicated that the coup distracted an economic transformational plan, which would have made Ghana an economic powerhouse.

“Ghanaians lost the opportunity, which the founder and leader of the country Ghana envisioned through his developmental plan, with the ultimate aim of attaining middle income status in the mid ’70s and the penultimate of an economic giant, not only in Africa, but the world in the late 1990s, as our independence peers among the Asian Tiger countries,” the statement indicated.

The party has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to reject the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), which they accused of engaging in “politics of national distraction” just like the forefathers of the party that was involved in the execution of the 1966 coup.

“As Ghanaians yearn for change in the 2016 election, the CPP in the Eastern Region calls on all voters to reject the NPP as the next government in Ghana, based on the history of downturn of our country,” the statement further indicated.

The CPP is also calling on the Ghanaian populace “to vote massively for the CPP and its presidential candidate after 50 years of mismanagement and misrule”.

The 50-year anniversary is under the theme: ‘50 Years Later, From Miracle to Crisis to Recovery’.

Below is the full statement:

BLAME THE COUP MAKERS; NLC WITH THE BUSIA/DANQUAH TRADITION SUPPORT, FOR YOUR WOES AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT.

CPP EASTERN REGION TELLS GHANAIANS.

As Ghanaians in general and the Convention Peoples' Party, CPP, in particular, solemnly mark the 50th anniversary of the illegal/illegitimate overthrow of the peoples' government of the First Republic under the presidency of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah of the CPP, the CPP Eastern regional branch calls for a sober reflection among Ghanaians.

On this dreaded day of 24 February half a century ago, Ghanaians lost the opportunity which the founder and leader of the country Ghana envisioned through his developmental plan with the ultimate aim of attaining middle-income status in the mid ’70s and the penultimate of an economic giant not only in Africa but the world in the late 1990s as our independence peers among the Asian Tiger Countries.

It was this day that the corrupt National Liberation Council, NLC, who did not only come to rob Ghanaians of their development, (infrastructure and economic), industrialisation, and national cohesion, promoted themselves to generals in a year and were financed from state coffers.

It was on this heart-breaking day that elements from the opposition, mainly belonging to the so-called Busia/Danquah tradition, which was then shamelessly led by Dr KA Busia, after several attacks to remove Osagyefo through all means including employing and deploying acts of terrorism led to the loss of several innocent Ghanaian lives including school children, which can be likened to their ‘All-die-be-die’ mantra in recent times in which the same tradition is involved in acid bathing among others.

It was on this memorable day of national destruction that Busia and his allies supervised the collapse of a once nationalist industrialised country which was the beacon of Africa. Being the sole beneficiary politically, economically, socially of the coup, the later Progress Party made Brigadier General Afrifa the first president between April 1969 and August 1970 as a gratitude.

The enemies of the state that ruled our country from February 1966 to January 1972, within this period of our history, deliberately caused a generational mess which the current generation are bearing the effects of. The under development in infrastructure, economic stagnation, declined fortunes in agriculture i.e. crop production, especially cocoa – which is one of the major product from the Eastern Region – destruction of state industries, the donation of an atomic reactor to the U.S. from the Ghana Atomic Agency at Kwabenya near Accra, which could have produced electricity just like the Akosombo Dam and would have been in use till now, which could have obviously been the panacea to chronic ‘dumsor’ we went through as a result of a shortfall in power generation.

Just like those days when they were not able to provide responsible opposition to governance, members of that tradition continue to do the politics of national destruction as they continue to act in a way which can be termed irresponsible whenever they are in opposition, as has been the case in recent times, especially in the Eastern Region, through reckless tribalism, spelling doom, and preaching of violence.

As Ghanaians yearn for change in the 2016 election, the CPP in the Eastern Region calls on all voters to reject the NPP as the next government of Ghana, based on the history of downturn of our country.

This is the time, the time has come for a Green Revolution, The revolution to tackle economic hardship, the Revolution to tackle collapsing agriculture, the revolution to bring back our national cohesion, etc.

The CPP calls on Ghanaians to take back their destiny by voting massively for the CPP and its presidential candidate after 50 years of mismanagement and misrule.

Long Live Ghana

Long Live CPP

Forward Ever

Backward Never

......Signed.........

Semefah Mawutor