Blame under-development in the North on 1966 coup - Samia

Wa, March 12, GNA - Madam Samia Yaaba Nkrumah, daughter of former President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has observed that the under-development of the North should be blamed largely on the 1966 coup d'etat that overthrew her father.

She said her father had a policy of building more schools and giving more scholarships to the people of the area.

Madam Nkrumah, who is a Member of Parliament for Jomoro in the Western Region made the observation at Nkrumah's Centenary Campus Lectures at the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Wa on Thursday.

She spoke on: 93Education and Development: The importance of primary and secondary education 96 Revisiting Nkrumah's Vision." Madam Nkrumah said the objective of providing free and compulsory education for all Ghanaian children would have been achieved if Dr. Nkrumah was allowed to continue his rule. She said investing heavily in human resource development as an essential component of the national development agenda was Nkrumah's goal.

She expressed regret that education is now going to the highest bidder to the detriment of the less privileged, saying it is a complete departure from Nkrumah's vision.

Madam Nkrumah said: 93Education is a democratic right and should be readily given from primary to university or tertiary level and there should be no compromise on this principle." "Democracy is not only concerned with multi-party elections, but it is gender equality, civil rights and social justice," She stressed. Mr. Bernard Mornah, a member of Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Planning Committee, said President Nkrumah had played his part appropriately in the building of the nation.

He said the pursuance of an industrial revolution to emancipate the people from colonialism was curtailed as a result of the 1966 coup d'etat.

Mr. Mornah who is also General Secretary of the People's National Convention urged the youth to cherish Kwame Nkrumah's vision and ideas so that they could use them to facilitate the development of the country.

Father Cletus Segtub, Registrar of the University for Development Studies said 93some people simply do not die but they go to sleep and so is Nkrumah". He said even though Nkrumah was said to have died, he is always present to speak to Ghanaians in all sphere of their endeavours.