The late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is Ghana’s first president
Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in a letter, explained his decision to support Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, who was widely regarded as one of his ‘arch-enemies’ for the position of Prime Minister in the 1969 general election.
In the letter, which he wrote to Busia after the military coup of January 13, 1972, Nkrumah indicated that his broadcast from exile, urging Ghanaians to vote for Busia, was not an act of goodwill.
He asserted that he wanted Busia to win the election and become Prime Minister to teach him a lesson.
“You will recall that just before the general elections in 1969, I broadcast on Conakry Radio to my people in Ghana, exhorting them not to vote for any other candidate for the Premiership but you. I do not know how you took this exhortation, but I could conjecture that you probably assumed that by exhorting the people of Ghana to vote for you, I was placing you above other candidates. If this was your way of thinking, then I am sorry to say you miscalculated and misconstrued the motivation of my exhortation.
“I had imagined that you would have realized that the reasons for asking the people of Ghana to vote for you was not so much because I thought you were better than any or all the candidates involved in the electioneering campaign. My reason for exhorting them to vote for you was that I knew that being a political weakling, you would sooner or later expose your shortcomings,” Nkrumah wrote to Busia.
He added, “Let me refresh your memory about some of the events which culminated in the overthrow of my legitimate Government on February 24, 1966, and relate them to the events which led to the overthrow of your imperialist and colonialist-orientated government with a view of drawing a logical conclusion as to whether your administration or mine was preferable.”
The late Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah stated that he ultimately achieved what he wanted, as Busia, who had unjustly criticized him and fabricated stories against him, was removed from office in a far worse manner than he had been.
He noted that Busia faced greater ordeals during his three-year tenure than Nkrumah had faced during his 15 years in power.
“You may also recall that the first thing these irresponsible soldiers did (after the coup) was to ransack my official residence and virtually steal my personal properties as well as cash I had left behind. To justify their illegitimate and criminal action, the imperialist stooges claimed that my Government was corrupt; that my Ministers had acquired ill-gotten wealth; that my Government had dissipated public funds in establishing ‘prestige projects’ and a host of other accusations against me without any proof whatsoever.
“But any objective political observer would agree that the same evils of which you and your colonialist and neo-colonialist masters accused me, reared their ugly heads and assumed more heinous proportions during the days of your government,” he said.
Read the full letter below:
BAI/MA
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