The debate over who foundered Ghana still lingers on as many who aspire to the ideas of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah believe he is the founder of Ghana whilst those who believe in the Danquah-Busia ideology also hold that Ghana has a numder of founders and one cannot take the credit alone.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, is of the firm belief that Ghana was founded by only Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and not the Danquahs nor the Busias. He adds that by twisting the narrative of how Ghana was foundered, revisionists are seeking to honour people who did no work.
Speaking at a Socialist Movement of Ghana event to celebrate the birthday of the first president of Ghana on September 21, Pratt argued that his good friend President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, whom he has been with in the trenches and still regards as his friend, when he needed to win votes to become the President of Ghana, referred to the late President Rawlings as the founder of Ghana’s fourth republic.
He said, if President Akufo-Addo and his cohorts want Ghanaians to believe that the late President was the founder of the current democratic era, then Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah is the founder of Ghana and if he [Nkrumah] cannot be the founder of Ghana, then JJ Rawlings cannot be the founder of the fourth republic.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr explained, “One of the people who has always argued that one person cannot found a republic is my own very good friend, the current President, who has always insisted that the republic cannot be founded by one person, my goodness…when he was struggling for power, when he needed to mobilise all kinds of state forces so that he could become the President of Ghana, one of the places he visited was the house of former President Jerry John Rawlings…and I heard my friend and current President H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo refer to Mr Rawlings as the founder of the fourth republic.
“If Nkrumah alone cannot be the founder of a republic, how come Jerry Rawlings alone was the founder of the fourth republic?” he asked.
“Their inconsistency [simply] kills me. Our point is not that Nkrumah founded Ghana alone; indeed, we don’t think that Nkrumah is that man or Captain Zoro etc in the western media, Nkrumah was a human being and we celebrate Nkrumah because he demonstrated something we have always believed in and we have always believed that out of the so-called common man or the ordinary person, something good can happen and Nkrumah personifies that; Nkrumah is the best example of that in our lifetime…” he said.
Kwesi Pratt Jnr further indicated that people who believe in Osagyefo celebrate him on his birthday as the founder of Ghana because he rose from a village in the Western Region and became the star of Africa.
“We celebrate Nkrumah because he is not like them. These people get a scholarship or whatever, they go to the United States of America (USA) and go to the university for four years, when they come back their accent will be changing. When they come back, you cannot even talk to them because their accent is so horrible, you can’t hear the words; they can’t pronounce the words. Nkrumah travelled outside this country, joined the Pan Africanist movements, organized a big Pan Africanist Congress in Manchester in the UK, he worked in the USA…and came back to the Gold Coast as an authentic Gold Coaster full of the vim of struggle, he didn’t come with LAFA [Locally Acquired Foreign Accent], he came as he went…,” he stressed.
Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day
This statutory public holiday is celebrated on September 21. This holiday commemorates the birthday of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.
Prior to the passing of the Public Holiday Amendment Bill into law in March 2019, the holiday on September 21 was known as Founders’ Day. Founder’s Day is now celebrated with a public holiday on August 4.