It is important to acknowledge the efforts of all those who contributed to the struggle for the independence of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, Yaw Oppong, a private legal practitioner and lecturer at the Central University, has said.
According to him, the accolade given to Ghana’s first president Dr Kwame Nkrumah as the founder of the country is wrong because it diminishes the efforts of the others who played key roles in the struggle for self-rule.
There has been a debate over whether or not Dr Nkrumah could be described as the founder of Ghana given that others contributed to the fight for independence from the British government.
In his speech to mark Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary, President Akufo-Addo revived the debate whether Ghana should have founding fathers as demanded by New Patriotic Party (NPP) elements or a founding father as insisted by the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
He added that it was when leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the party that began the demand for independence, decided they needed a full-time person to manage the party’s affairs that Mr Nkrumah was brought in.
“Soon thereafter, on 28th February, 1948, the notorious and senseless killings of three ex-servicemen, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey… undoubtedly quickened the pace of the independence movement,” he said.
But the president has suffered some flak from some Nkrumahists who believe he was re-writing history.
However, speaking on TV3’s New Day on Saturday 11 March, Mr Oppong said: “When you compare the others in the British colony, we got our independence on silver platter because the struggle had started long ago before Nkrumah came, and so in all fairness, let’s not discount the contributions of others in the struggle for independence.
“Nkrumah would not have claimed he is the founder of Ghana if he were alive.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
