Dr. K.A. Busia
Forty three years ago the man Dr. K.A. Busia completed his sojourn on the ephemeral world leaving behind a legacy for generations following thereof to thread upon.
His strides during his chequered stay on the political and academic spheres of the country and beyond are documented.
We have a lot to learn from a man whose abhorrence for dictatorship did not make him a friend of those on the side of this horrible system.
We have followed his contributions to the political development of his motherland, a country he served with all his heart in several ways even at the peril of his life.
Dr. K.A. Busia was an epitome of resilience for positive reasons, perseverance and patriotism.
Even when he was being haunted by agents of the dictatorship which enveloped this country at a certain period Ghana’s history, he stood his grounds the opposition grouping he led defending the rights of the people.
His identification of corruption as a major challenge for the country still resonates in scholarly circles. At a time when corruption had started eating into the fabric of the nation but was unnoticed, he played a pivotal role in expose the social canker.
Although the support he received was limited and could not garner enough push to deal the anomaly the blow needed to reduce it to the barest minimum he at least brought the subject under the public radar.
Today if corruption is one of the issues on the public domain the role of this illustrious son of this great country in highlighting it cannot be ignored.
It is at moments like this that the opportunity for us to reflect upon the works and contributions of such patriots and apply them in our national development agenda, emerge.
Dr. K.A. Busia did not lose sight of the effect of indiscipline hence his introduction of a programme to educate the youth about simple yet critical courtesies in society when he headed the Centre For Civic Education.
Those were the days when school children would vacate their seats in public buses for adults to sit on. Had the project persisted Ghana would have been on a better social notch.
Many would remember the publication ‘Courtesy for Boys and Girls’ distributed gratis under the direction of Dr. K.A. Busia.
It is such persons who should be remembered and celebrated and not forgotten. We recall with relish how Dr. K.A. Busia even in the early days of post-independence Ghana opposed the loan approved by Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah for Guinea something some observers described as a furtherance of his friendship with Sekou Toure the francophone President. He latched is position on the fear that Guinea was not going to pay the whopping loan.
The Bono prince which he was in the Kingdom of Wenchi one of the four territories of the then Gold Coast Dr. K.A. Busia would be remembered as long as Ghana exists as a country.
The University of London graduate in Medieval and Modern History and then his studies at the University College, Oxford as the first African student followed by his DPhil in Social Anthropology at Nuffield College, Oxford in 1947 a couple of years after the end of the WWII primed him for the nation-building task that awaited him in the Gold Coast and subsequently Ghana.
Sadly he had to leave the country his loved so much victim of the dictatorship which the lives of other patriots.
The story of Dr. K.A. Busia whose tenure as Prime Minister was truncated by adventurists is worth savouring because in it is embedded wisdom applicable everyday in our national development agenda.