Kufuor attack on Nkrumah neo-colonialist – Ernesto

Although no official of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) has been heard so far reacting to comments by former President John Kufuor that Dr Kwame Nkrumah killed our democracy, Ghana’s first president will speak for himself even in death, Ernesto Yeboah, a former youth organiser of the CPP, has said.

Mr Kufuor had said that Kwame Nkrumah plunged the country into chaos and virtually eradicated democracy.

Ex-President Kufuor, who was interacting with the leadership of the International Democratic Union (IDU) which paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra, said on Tuesday June 20 that Mr Nkrumah misused Ghana’s resources and plunged the country into poverty.

Explaining further, he pointed out that by 1963, “our then President Nkrumah, left of centre politician, moved the country into a one-party state with a lot of intolerance; he built a whole prison just 22 miles of Accra for detention of political opponents”.

He observed: “Democracy, as we are espousing, was virtually killed,” and was quick to add that “by 1966 the country had too much and it was labouring under poverty it had never known before”.

Mr Kufuor, who served as president between 2001 and 2009, said the country was “labouring under intolerance and people were not allowed to express themselves [under President Nkrumah]…”

He indicated that it was after 1992 that the country became stable and democracy was introduced and hopefully has been strengthened over the years.

But reacting to these statements on his Facebook page, Ernesto Yeboah said the good works of Nkrumah had been penned down in books which all citizens can read in order to appreciate the efforts of Ghana’s foremost figure in the struggle for independence.

He said: “Only two weeks ago Rawlings launched a scathing attack on Kwame Nkrumah, he even justified the illegal overthrow. The media (agenda setters) was silent on it. Kufuor has done same, and it's everywhere now. For two former presidents of the NDC and NPP to be united in attacking Kwame Nkrumah is indicative of the neo-colonial country that Ghana is.

“What is interesting, however, is that nobody speaks for Kwame Nkrumah, even in death, he speaks for himself. Contact … his book, Dark Days in Ghana.”m he said