The Convention People’s Party (CPP), has described as regrettable President Nana Addo’s address during the sixtieth anniversary celebration, which they say sought to downplay Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s role in Ghana’s independence struggle.
The President’s speech came under attack by a section of Ghanaians over what they say was a skewed account of Ghana’s history to suit his father, Edward Akufo-Addo, and uncle, J. B Danquah who played vital roles in Ghana’s journey towards independence.
Even though the president’s spokesperson has rubbished these claims, the Director of Communications of the late Kwame Nkrumah’s party, CPP, Kadir Abdul Rauf, insists President Akufo Addo clearly tweaked Ghana’s history to please his ancestry.
“We as a party can see a deliberate attempt by the President not only to minimize the role of Kwame Nkrumah in the independence struggle of the country, but also to take up arms against the history of our country because for example as a party, we have argued that yes, it doesn’t take one single individual to win independence for people. It must take the efforts and sacrifice of people, but in line with principles of history, it took one person’s efforts to climax several years of people’s trouble and in the case of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah assumed that role and any attempt to minimize or deny Kwame Nkrumah this role is most regrettable.”
According to him, “ if the President[Nana Addo] wants to mention names that he thinks have been left out of the scene then there are other equally important names that he should have mentioned” but failed to do so.
Buttressing his point with significant examples, Mr. Kadir Abdul Rauf said Nana Addo had no businesses giving credit to J.B Danquah and Edward Akuffo, since they dissociated themselves from two significant events that led to Ghana’s independence.
“We think that the President used a cherry picking attitude to our history and we think that it is most unfortunate and we are opposed to the attitude towards the history of our country. The two most significant events that happened towards the independence of Ghana, JB. Danquah and the rest were not part of it. For example, the 1948 riot which sparked a chain of events that subsequently brought down colonialism in Ghana, J.B Danquah and his colleagues dissociated themselves from it, and they said it was a communist agitator, Kwame Nkrumah who was buying it and they had nothing to do with it.”
Akufo Addo didn’t skew Ghana’s history – Mustapha Hamid
Meanwhile, the Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, has rejected claims that the President attempted skewing Ghana’s history to favour his father and uncle, Edward Akufo-Addo and J.B Danquah.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr Hamid said there is no deliberate attempt change the history of Ghana in favour of the two, emphasizing that the two indeed played significant roles in ensuring Ghana’s independence.
“It is the history as it is. People didn’t even know that there were women who fought for our independence. Even for me, that was the first time I heard about the [Akua] Shorshorshor woman, beautiful name like that who sacrificed her every penny. Every nation has what it calls founding fathers. If you go to America, they talk about John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson among others as the founding fathers of America, even though at the same time Washington had a pride of place in American history.”
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