Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo has issued an Executive Instrument to commemorate September 21 – Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday as ‘Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day’ and observed as a public holiday.
[ads1]This was contained is a press statement signed by Mr. Eugene Arhin, Communication Director at the presidency.
The day which was since 2009 celebrated and observed as founders day of Ghana will not be marked as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day and will remain a national holiday.
According to the statement, the president has proposed “legislation to Parliament to designate 4th August as FOUNDERS DAY, and 21st September as KWAME NKRUMAH MEMORIAL DAY, both of which will be observed as public holidays.”
September 21 of every years was declared by Ghana’s late President Prof. John Evans Attah Mills in 2009 as Ghana’s founders day and has since been celebrated as observed as national holiday.
However, President Nana Akufo-Addo is of the view that the September 21 that was declared and being observed as founders day is historically inaccurate.
“It is unfortunate that, 60 years after independence, the history of the events leading to it continues to be embroiled in unnecessary controversy, due largely to partisan political considerations of the moment.
It is clear that successive generations of Ghanaians made vital contributions to the liberation of our country from imperialism and colonialism. It is, therefore, fitting that we honour them, as those who contributed to the founding of our nation.” –
According to him, 4th August which was the day the first political party, United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was formed by indigenous people of the Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1947 led by Paa Grant should be observed as the founders day but not the birth date of Kwame Nkrumah.
“In a deliberate act in the continuum of Ghanaian history, exactly fifty years later, on 4th August, 1947, at Saltpond, the great nationalists of the time gathered to inaugurate the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), the first truly nationalist party of the Gold Coast, to demand the independence of our nation from British rule, at a gathering which included “paramount chiefs, clergymen, lawyers, entrepreneurs, teachers, traders and men and women from all walks of life in the Gold Coast”, according to an eye witness.”
Giving a historical perspective, the statement said “On that day, in 1897, the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was formed in Cape Coast. The Society did a great job to mobilise the chiefs and people to ward off the greedy hands of British imperialism to ensure that control of Ghanaian lands remained in Ghanaian hands. It represented the first monumental step towards the making of modern Ghana, enabling us to avoid the quagmire of land inheritance that our brothers and sisters in Southern and Eastern Africa continue to suffer, from the seizures of their lands by white minorities.”
The president however noted that, “It is equally clear that the first leader of independent Ghana, and the nation’s 1st President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, played an outstanding role in helping to bring to fruition the works of the earlier generations, and leading us to the promised land of national freedom and independence. It is entirely appropriate that we commemorate him for that role, by designating his birthday as the permanent day of his remembrance.”
Source: AwakeAfrica.com | Efo Korsi Senyo | senyo@awakeafrica.com