Afrifa and Kotoka: Political Villains No. 1 (1)

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So many great writers and singers have written and sang about the importance of history as a general subject and source of information, and what Ti-Kelenkelen can say about that simply paraphrases what they have already said.  A good example is what Raggae Legend, Bob Marley?s son, Ziggy Marley, sang: ?Tomorrow people, where is your past??  And so this week, Dear Reader, we will obey to the letter the instruction inherent in that cross-generational question.  We are throwing our limelight on a landmark incident in our history, analyse it and see what lessons it holds for us today and tomorrow.

It is interesting to note that four of the most important dates ? ones that mark great turning points ? in our lives as a state are crowded into six months of the year.  These are February 24 & 28, March 6 and July 1.  Another interesting point about those dates is that they all are important to the beginnings of our country as state.

Ti-Kelenkelen must, however, point out that the specific incident on the table right now is February 24, 1966. The 24th of last month is 47 years since the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah as president of the Republic of Ghana in a coup d??tatorganised by two military officers, Major-turned-General AkwasiAmankwaaAfrifa and Colonel-turned-Lt. General Emmanuel KwasiKotoka.  Of course, by declassified US government papers, we now have their confirmation on what some Ghanaians already knew anyway, that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) financed the coupand actually orchestrated incidents to make the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah easy and easily acceptable to the masses.

Introduction

Many writers of African history have recorded the fact that our soldiers went to (various parts of the world to) help with Europe?s war to liberate itself from Adolf Hitler (World War II: 1939-1945.)  And they returned with tales of liberty and how no people should allow any other people to colonise them.  That gave great impetus to the independence movement all over the continent and, indeed, throughout the colonised world.

In Ghana, the group that had for decades been at the forefront of the independence fight was the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC,) financed mainly by shipping magnate and businessman, Paa Grant.  After a trip that took him to the US and Europe, Kwame Nkrumah returned to Ghana (1948) at the insistence of Dr. AkoAdjei, who had met Nkrumah in London and spoken to his UGCC colleagues about his organisational abilities.  Nkrumah joined the UGCC to fight for independence.

(On February 28. 1948, Ghanaian WWII veteransmarched with the intention of presenting a petition asking the British colonial administration to fulfil promises it made to them.  Rather colonial police encountered the veterans at the February 28th Junction and shot into the crowdkilling three soldiers, Sgt. Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey.  That incident, historian say, gave great impetus to the fight for independence.)

Soon however, there was disagreement between Nkrumah and the other members of the UGCC.  The main bone of contention was how soon the British should pack bag and baggage and leave.   While UGCC wanted the British to give Ghana independence at the soonest possible time, Nkrumah insisted on ?Self Government Now!?  While the others felt Nkrumah was rushing, he felt they were pampering the British.  Historians point out that, eventually, the disagreements got so bad that Nkrumah left the UGCC, and formed the first ever political party in Ghana, the Convention People?s Party (CPP.)

Unfolding event in the Gold Coast compelled the British to organise the first Ghana elections in 1951.  Nkrumah was in prison for allegedly causing the Accra Riots, but the CPP won the election.

Gold Coast to Ghana

In 1951, Nkrumah became Leader of Government Business and formed the first African government for the Gold Coast.   However the British governor was still in control.  In fact, 1951 to early 1957 was like a transition period.  Nkrumah won other elections in 1954 and an early one called in 1956.  Political independence eventually came on March 6, 1957 with Nkrumah as our first Prime Minister.   As a young man out to understand Ghana?s history I read a certain important book, but has forgotten both the title and author.  That book made me understand that even as Prime Minister, Nkrumah?s hands were tied, because Queen Elizabeth II, in London, was still the custodian of our constitution and we could not make changes without her consent.

Indeed, according to the book, that is the reason Nkrumah declared a republic in 1960.On July 1, 1960, we started using our own constitution, changed our name to Ghana, and replaced the pound with our own cedi.  Ghana was a full sovereign state, and Nkrumah became our first president.

The British colonialist had only one agenda ? to extract and take away our natural resources to build their country.  They were thus not interested in building Ghana.  To cut a long story short, Ti-Kelenkelen has ever said Nkrumah took over from the British when Ghana was a village state, and by 1966 when he was overthrown he had made Ghana a nation-state in the modern world.  He quickly constructed diversified and vast modern infrastructure, including roads, improved telecommunications systems, the Tema and Takoradi Ports, and the strategic Akosombo Dam and Hydroelectric project as part of the grand Volta River Project that had an irrigation component that was never implemented simply because Nkrumah was overthrown.

Since he knew the importance of trained human resource at all levels, Nkrumah built many and proper basic and second-cycle schools, polytechnics and true universities, not the single-block primary schools and four-five building universities we are building today.  He built teacher-training colleges and various training centres for public workers and even established night school to enable workers upgrade themselves.  Prof. Chris Abotchie of the Sociology Department of the University of Ghana reports his mentor, Prof.G. K. Nukunya, as ever stating that Nkrumah raised the number of well-trained Ghanaians in top positions in public service from about 80 (1951) to over 3,000 in 1966 (?)

Nkrumah clearly understood that manufacturing and export are the way to prosperity in the 1960s and the future.  Therefore, he built many state manufacturing industries and grouped them under the Ghana Industrial Holding Corporation (GIHOC.)  Different experts have written many books setting out reasons why GIHOC failed.  However, Ti-Kelenkelen must state that many of those reasons for failure are challenges other states did successfully overcome to build thriving industries.  A classic example, Japan does not have iron ore in commercial quantities, but they have successful steel-making plants to feed their many industries, such as the automakers.

Watching Ghana over the last two decades that Ti-Kelenkelen has been a journalist, he could point to two fundamental factors as responsible for the collapse of GIHOC.  One is the total ignorance of Kotoka and Afrifa on the actual, fundamental and awesome issues at stake about Ghana?s future in 1966, (more on that later.)  The other factor is sabotage by Ghana?s elite.  Most of them took state property and finances for granted, ?lived large? at the expense of the public purse, and stole from the factories to build private properties for themselves.  The other workers, seeing such attitude and behaviour by their superiors, also seized the liberty to steal and misuse what they could also lay hands on.

Nkrumah even knew the strategic role nuclear energy was going to play in the world?s future and set up the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission and Centre for research in to nuclear energy.  He also understood what strategic resource crude oil was and so built the Tema Oil Refinery.  That way we did not have to buy higher-priced petroleum fuels but could import partiallyrefined crude and do the final refining ourselves at reduced cost.  By building TOR, he also set up Ghana so that we could gradually upgrade the machinery at the refinery to the stage where we could eventually refine crude oil brought out of the ground this minute.  Today, Ghana is drilling the best form of crude oil, light sweet crude, but the companies have to take it away and refine it elsewhere. As if that was not shameful enough, successive national administrations have intentionally run down TOR with the sole aim of selling it off.

Problems

Nkrumah?s professing of Pan-Africanism and his policy of helping other African states to gain independence was great for Africa, but the west were afraid of him and what he represented.  Left to the west, every leader in Africa should always go and ask them ?How should I do this?? or ?How should I do that??  Nkrumah was never that kind of leader.  After travelling around, reading a lot and observing well, he was God-blessed with the intelligence to know what a country needs and must have to be a prosperous and competent state in the modern world.  In short, Nkrumah?s dreams for Ghana and Africa are the very dreams the west dreams for itself.  However, if Africa walked that path, the west will no longer be able to buy our raw materials as cheap as they get it, hence their fundamental dislike for Nkrumah.

Another problem is that while spending, Nkrumah obviously did not keep one eye on the state coffers.  Even if he kept his eyes on the coffers, he was not obeying the basic principle of making sure you balance your budget year after year or keep your deficit at a controllable minimum.

Nkrumah was Ghana?s leader in the heat of the Cold War ? the ideological fight between capitalism and communism/socialism; a capitalist US and herwesternallies were in an ideological fight with a communist Soviet Union (Russia and co.) and her eastern allies.  Nkrumah took Ghana into a Non-Aligned Movement of states that preferred to say neutral.

Highlight

?Left to the west, every leader in Africa should always go and ask them ?How should I do this?? or ?How should I do that??  Nkrumah was never that kind of leader.  [He knew] what a country needs and must have to be a prosperous and competent state in the modern world.  In short, Nkrumah?s dreams for Ghana and Africa are the very dreams the west dreams for itself.?

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