Executive Director of the Centre for Public Opinion and Awareness (CenPOA) has described President Akufo-Addo’s national address, which he delivered in commemoration of August 4 as Founders’ Day, as a misrepresentation of facts.
Michael Donyina Mensah says the holiday intended to unite the country and celebrate the contributions of those who led the independence struggle; the President has ended up surrounding it with confusion, distortion, misrepresentation, and disagreements.
The policy analyst argued that several individuals indeed contributed to the independence struggle. However, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is the key lead who demanded “self-government now” when the others wanted self-government in the shortest possible time.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has strongly rejected the claims that Ghana was founded by a single individual.
In his 2024 Founders’ Day address on Saturday, August 3, the president stated that he strongly disagreed with the notion that Kwame Nkrumah singlehandedly founded Ghana.
In 2019, Parliament passed a law establishing August 4 as Founders’ Day to honour the collective efforts of those who contributed to Ghana’s independence struggle.
Michael Donyinah Mensah averred that it is important to recognize the role of those who helped in gaining independence for Ghana.
But he will stress that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s approach was what gained Ghana its independence on March 6, 1957.
He said the address was a way of motivating us: “However, the statement made by the President contained misrepresentation of facts and distortion of our history. We disagree with him on some of the issues he raised in his statement. First of all, the statement he made was good but there were points he made that were needless. He didn’t have to say that he rejects completely that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is the founder of Ghana. It was needless because it was just recently that Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the running mate of the NPP, came out to denigrate Nkrumah and made disparaging remarks about him.
Ghanaian did not like what NAPO said, which later made him apologize, and so the President didn’t need to have said these things. He could have addressed Ghanaians without referencing Nkrumah in that manner. Nkrumah is also a founder so if you are celebrating founders, you will have to celebrate him. The statement by the President was intentional and had a reason behind it. It also contained inaccuracies. The inaccuracies identified in the statement by the President were that the UGCC and the Aborigines Right Society the President referred to and their approach was far different from Nkrumah. They wanted independence for the areas that our colonizers were colonizing. But Dr. Nkrumah added the North, parts of the Volta Region.”
“It is true the other contributors did their part. However, in terms of what Ghana constitutes, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah will always be credited with gaining our independence. But we don’t fail to recognize the contributions of the others in our struggle towards independence under colonial rule.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
