Samia calls for truce on Ghana founding debate

Kwame Nkrumah’s daughter, Samia Nkrumah, is calling for a truce between the UP and Nkrumaist traditions on the raging debate over Ghana’s founding.

The age-old debate between the two ideologies was reignited on Friday when political historian, Prof. Mike Ocquaye, who is of the Danquah-Busia-Dombo stock, said at a lecture to mark the 21st anniversary of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) that Dr. J.B. Danquah and his UP contemporaries deserved more credit for Ghana’s founding than Dr. Nkrumah.

The NPP – a progeny of the United Party (UP) – has always put forth a strong argument that Nkrumah merely rode on the UP’s crest of wave and capitalised on initial work done by the pre-independence United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) founded by Dr. Danquah and his contemporaries, to fight for and gain freedom for the former British colony.

Prof. Ocquaye repeated those arguments at his recent lecture and by that, sparked another bout of intellectual and political debate about who deserved credit for Ghana’s founding.

Samia Nkrumah, who insisted in an interview with XYZ News on Friday that her father played the most instrumental role in founding Ghana, says the debate is robbing attention from critical development issues.

“Why are we engaging in this diversionary argument at this point in time when our people don't have basic needs?” Samia asked in a post on her facebook wall.

The former Legislator said she looked forward to the day that the two traditions will put their ideological differences aside and join forces to develop the country.

“We have our different political policies and views but I want to see the day when the descendants of the Busia-Danquah tradition and those like me of the Nkrumaist tradition bury the hostility and focus on finding consensus to solve the many problems ordinary Ghanaians face on a daily basis: portable water, power supply, free, compulsory and quality education, basic access to safe healthcare and so forth,” she said.

“These are human and genuine democratic rights that all political parties must first address and facilitate 56 years after our independence”.