Osahene Boakye Djan on Poverty and Public Confrontations in Ghana

Only Nkrumaist Government 2009 Can Stop the Drift

Fellow Ghanaians, in the last couple of weeks, a number of significant events have occurred in Ghana which strangely received far less serious attention than they should. Given the gruesome and as yet unaccounted for murder of the late Dagbon Chief in the early years of the NPP administration and given the fact that the army of young unemployed such as is growing in Ghana to-day have always provided the raw recruits for tribal wars elsewhere in Africa, these must be, for us, worrying signs indeed. We are witnessing the pile-up of some of the incendiary devices needed to trigger the coming national crisis that I have openly and consistently been hinting at since June 2005.

First, there was the State of the Nation address by President J. A. Kufour. The scale and the priorities of the address pointedly failed to address the harrowing plight and misery of the teeming poor of our people. It also failed to mobilise national democratic consensus behind the Representation of Peoples (Amendment) Bill ROPAB. And now there are all kinds of public confrontations raging over the passage of the bill.

Second, chiefs at war incident during the funeral of another chief in the Eastern Region, was also reported. During the funeral of the late Nana Wereko Ampem II, the Chief of Amonokrom, the Asafo Company accompanying the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panyin, fired into the umbrella of the Teppahene, Nana Adusei Atwenewa Ampem I, who was representing the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. The trouble began just on the arrival of the Okyenhene, when all except the Teppahene, rose as a sign of respect for the Omanhene of Akyem Abuakwa. His well armed Asafo group menacingly wielding pistols and guns are said to have interpreted Teppahene?s conduct as a sign of disrespect and fired shots into the umbrella of Teppahene, destroying it in the process. In a worryingly foreboding response from an outraged follower of Teppahene, ?if the Asafo company of the Otumfuo were to be here with us it would have been a bloody clash, because they would not have sat down for this to happen to their chief?.

Third, the Agbogbomefia of Asogli State, Togbe Afede XIV is reported to have been moved to bare his soul and those of his people to the visiting Minister of Defence of the Kufuor administration, Dr. Addo Kufuor on the undesirable tribal undercurrents of politics in the country. He is said to have recalled at the meeting, the tribal slogans that heralded the formation of the NPP as a political party in the 1990?s, and pointed out that a great majority of the people in the Volta Region were put off by those slogans and thus shifted to the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He is reported to have stressed that slogans like ?Yeregye yen man and Akonta besi fom?, among others, presented the contest with NDC as a fight against the Ewes. He claimed that the slogans presented the NPP as anti-Ewe and made majority of the Ewes to see the NDC as their own.

As in the past, an Nkrumaist Government 2009 can stop this slide into anarchy and crisis. So, all is not lost. For, in spite of the internal squabbles within the Kwame Nkrumah political family today, the prospects of producing the Nkrumaist Government 2009 are bright. By now, the news that the CPP and PNC political parties from the Nkrumah Limann political tradition have agreed to merge into one party by June this year has reached us all.

When our parents and grandparents fought for the independence of Ghana, they did so because they believed in Nkrumaism, which taught that whatever they did, above all else, they should seek first the political kingdom and all other things would be added unto them. This led to the campaign of Nkrumaists united for government 1951 to begin to free Ghanaians from direct colonial domination into independence. The result of that campaign was the first ever democratic elections in what is today Ghana. Nkrumaists won the 1951 election and gave us the first Nkrumaist Government 1951.

Again in 1979, led by Imoro Egala and others, Nkrumaists united for Government 1979. As Deputy-Head of State, Head of Government and Spokesman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) at the time, I was part of the administration that oversaw the free, fair and non-ethnic based elections for the electoral victory of the Nkrumaist Peoples National Party (PNP) and the hand over of political power to Dr. Hilla Limann, its elected leader.

Since then, in the last four general elections that have taken place, you have voted into office the liberal democrat Dr. John Jerry Rawlings of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the conservative democrat Dr. John Agyekum Kufour of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to implement the New Right Project in Ghana. Both of them served in the illegal and lawless Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) which removed the PNP and Dr. Limann from office unconstitutionally in December 1981 contrary to the policy and motivations of the AFRC and against the wishes of majority of Ghanaians and the members of the AFRC, including myself, who fought from abroad, against the PNDC right from the day it was announced.

Over the years, the Nkrumaist Political Family and her members and children have been expected to provide an Nkrumaist Government platform for us to vote into office an Nkrumaist Government to pursue our hopes, aspirations and interests. On the contrary, the Family have either been engaged in fruitless inter-party political unity talks, alliances and coalitions, or intra-party political divisions and quarrels. What is more, her members and children have either been working overtly and otherwise against the interests of the Nkrumaist Political Family, or deserted the progressive Nkrumaist tradition of the Broad Left for the liberal (NDC) and the conservative (NPP) traditions. It is therefore with relief to learn that you have now been informed of the decision of the PNC/CPP to constitutionally unite as a spring board for an Nkrumaist Government 2009. I know you welcome that decision to unite by June this year and I join the rest of the Nkrumaist Political Family to congratulate all those with the responsibility for this final significant move towards Nkrumaist Government 2009.

Sooner or later, however, after the constitutional PNC-CPP unity, the enemies of the people of Ghana will come, Dr. Nkrumah warned us long ago, as a ?latter-day harpy, a monster which entices its victims with sweet music? and packaged lies. They will tell us that the Nkrumaists are not united and will point to the other Nkrumaist parties like GCPP for a proof; they will point to our internal differences as signs of terminal disorder; they will brand Nkrumaists as communists and yesterdays men; they will tell us that Nkrumaists do not have money while they have always bribed voters up front to vote against their own interests; they will tell us Nkrumaists are not on the ground and organised and a vote for them will be wasted vote, and more of such lies.

What they will not however tell you, Fellow Ghanaians, is this: that the most important thing for the Nkrumaist Political Family, whether it has two (2) parties or one thousand (1000) parties, is her unification for government led by a Presidential Candidate capable of winning an election on a single political platform of Nkrumaists United for Government Now (2009) to bring us the new freedom from poverty into wealth. It is this platform that will mobilise us all to elect an Nkrumaist Government into office; and will give rise to a new dynamic leadership of young men and women who are ideologically clear that Nkrumaism is the love for the territorial unity of Ghana and Africa, the progressive development of Ghana, the self-determination of the African Personality, the scientific and technological development of Ghana, and the opportunity of education for all to achieve the highest level attainable. It is a platform that, above all, will be devoted to (1) Dr. Kwame Nkrumah?s philosophical Consciencism, which is the synthesis of the philosophies of idealism and materialism, (2) the ideological instrument of progressive economics, which is also the synthesis of capitalism and socialism for social-political practice, especially in Africa, and (3) Consciencism?s ideological principle, which is the equality of all human beings whether Christian, Moslem or Traditionalist.

Today, my fellow Ghanaians, you are once again being asked to support the Campaign of Nkrumaists United for Government 2009 as we first did in 1951 and recently in 1979. With your support we can win and we can govern once again with an Nkrumaist Government in Ghana that will champion our common interests as Ghanaians first, so that together, we shall avoid tribal politics in order to avert the coming national crisis and move away from poverty for good and pursue wealth and happiness for all.

May God Our Father, Allah the Ever Compassionate and Merciful and All Our Ancestors bless you all.

Thank you

Osahene Boakye Djan, Presidential Candidate, Campaign of Nkrumaists United for Government 2009.