Nkrumah was not a saint; CPP must tell the truth – Prof. Ocquaye

Prof. Mike Oquaye, former Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya in the Greater Accra Region has called on members of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) to desist from portraying the First President of Ghana as a man without faults.

Speaking to Okay FM on the 49th anniversary of the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Law Professor and former legislator stated that Ghana’s first President was an asset and therefore did many great things to advance the course of this nation.

“….He was a great man. He put many things to set the nation on the course of development, but we must also know he is not a saint.

“He also did many things that did not help the democratic development of the country and that were some of his flaws. I would want the CPP to be bold on some of these issues and not pretend Kwame Nkrumah was a saint,” he said.

To him, all Nkrumaists must tell a true story of the events that led to the overthrow of Ghana’s First President and not always advance arguments that suggest that he (Kwame Nkrumah) did everything right but was just hated by a few power hungry individuals.

Exactly 49 years ago, the Nkrumah Administration under the first Republic of Ghana was overthrown by a military mutiny which members of the CPP, a political party Kwame Nkrumah founded, described as ‘Ghana’s day of Shame’.

History has it that the event of 24th February 1966 set the tone for series military interventions in Ghana’s democratic practice.

Now, Ghana is practicing democracy under the 4th Republic, and though she has touted as the star, as far as the adherence to the tenets of democracy in Africa is concerned, the CPP blames the 1966 coup makers and their sponsors for derailing the developmental agenda on which Kwame Nkrumah set Ghana.