Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, national chairman of the National Democratic Congress and Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (P. L. O.) Lumumba is a renowned Kenyan lawyer, academic, and Pan-Africanist public speaker
The National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, says modern Ghana owes a significant part of its existence as a nation to Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
According to him, Dr Nkrumah played a unique role in bringing together territories that previously existed as separate political and administrative entities to form the Ghana that exists today.
Speaking at the launch of the Nkrumah Fest, an initiative of the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, Mr Asiedu Nketiah said no other politician or nationalist could be compared with Dr Nkrumah in terms of his contribution to the formation of Ghana.
He said the struggles for independence before Dr Nkrumah’s emergence were largely concentrated in the Gold Coast colony, which covered areas including the present-day Western, Central, Eastern and Greater Accra regions, as well as parts of what is now Volta Region.
According to him, the Ashanti Kingdom was outside the Gold Coast colony and therefore was not directly affected by the activities of the earlier freedom fighters in the colony.
He further identified the Northern Territories and Trans-Volta Togoland as separate political entities that had to be brought into the new nation.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah explained that Trans-Volta Togoland had come under British administration following the division of the former German colony of Togo after Germany’s defeat in the First World War.
He said Dr Nkrumah’s contribution to the independence struggle went beyond securing independence for the Gold Coast, as he also played a role in bringing the different territories together to establish the territorial basis of present-day Ghana.
“Before Nkrumah came to the scene, there was nothing like Ghana,” he said.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah said attempts to diminish Dr Nkrumah’s contribution to the country’s history were therefore misguided.
He said his own appreciation of Dr Nkrumah’s legacy was also shaped by the opportunity he received to access education through policies introduced during the Nkrumah era.
He recounted that as a child in Seikwa in the Tain District of the Bono Region, he was picked up by the Young Pioneers and taken to his relatives, who were informed that his parents had to send him to school following the introduction of free compulsory universal basic education.
He said the experience eventually influenced his decision to study Dr Nkrumah’s works and help preserve his legacy.
Mr Asiedu Nketiah commended Mr Armah-Kofi Buah for establishing the Nkrumah Fest, saying the initiative offered an opportunity for Ghanaians to reflect on Dr Nkrumah’s contribution and correct what he described as attempts to denigrate his name and legacy.
He said the recognition of Dr Nkrumah beyond Ghana’s borders, including his designation as African of the Century, should encourage Ghanaians to properly acknowledge his contribution to the country’s history.
“No other politician and no other nationalist can compare themselves to the one and only Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.
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