The General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Nana Yaa Akyempim Jantuah has charged Ghanaians to come together and set aside a day to apologize to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah for banishing him from the country.
She asserts that leader of Ghana’s fight for independence was kicked out of the country in a coup d’état when he was not in Ghana, leaving him stateless.
“We need to ask Nkrumah to forgive us for how we booted him out and for all the ills we committed against him. To think that he was banished out of this nation when he was all the way in Hanoi on a peace mission and was left stateless,” she stated.
She recounted that until President Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea decided to take him in with Guineans voting him (Nkrumah) as 2nd President, then he would have remained stateless till his death. “It was Ahmed Sékou Touré and the people of Guinea who gave him a habitat. Coups happen with the leaders in their home country but it was different in Nkrumah’s situation.”
Comparing the fate of Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and others who were executed after coups to Nkrumah, she mentioned, “Of course it was a very unfortunate and unacceptable situation at the time but these people were buried at the military cemetery. Even if they were buried in mass graves, these can be identified. But after Nkrumah died, he was still in Guinea until Acheampong decided to bring him to Ghana and bury him. Even that he was buried at Nkroful.”
In an interview with Samuel Eshun on e.TVGhana’s Fact Sheet show, she revealed that the final funeral rites of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah have not been performed some 49 years after his death “and that is unacceptable. I in particular always say we need to hold a ceremony to say sorry to Nkrumah.”
According to the politician, Ghana’s treatment of Nkrumah was a sad and painful one “and we need to apologize to him. Nkrumah wasn’t a god, he was human. He was an icon with an indelible legacy and his flaws didn’t merit for us to banish him. He didn’t engage in treason and was not expected to be banished.”
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The General Secretary of Nkrumah’s CPP claims Osagyefo in his last days wrote to the Ghana for him to be allowed to return and if for nothing at all die and be buried amongst his kin. “We denied him that right although he was a full bodied Ghanaian. That was woefully unacceptable and we need to apologize to him.”
21st September, 2021 marked Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day; a day set aside to remember and honour the country’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Dr. Nkrumah became the leader of government business in 1951 after leading the CPP to victory to form a government, a process which eventually led the Gold Coast to independence from British rule in 1957.
He also played a key role in the formation of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU).
As the leader of the country, Dr Nkrumah led massive socio-economic development that resulted in a number of infrastructural projects, including the construction of the Akosombo Dam, the Tema Motorway, among other projects.
