Keep The Founder's Day intact!

I beg very much to disagree with my senior comrade, Dr. K. B. Asante. He is one of the few Nkrumahists left, whose voice I hold in high esteem. And nothing he has said here would diminish that. In a news item published on Ghanaweb General News of Monday, 22 September 2014, the Ghanaian statesman and retired Diplomat, Dr. K. B. Asante described as “unnecessary” the celebration of Founders Day as a public holiday. He was reported to have argued that the day could have been put to better use without declaring it a public holiday.

Dr. Asante, who worked as secretary to Dr. Nkrumah, explained that a day in honour of a hard working personality like Dr Kwame Nkrumah should not have been a holiday.

“Nkrumah was for hard work…this is Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday and we focus on Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.

Indeed, I can see where he is coming from. What is the point in all these pomp and pageantry, if our lazy political leaders remain insincere to the ideals for which the Osagyefo is being honoured on Founder’s Day? His Excellency, the Akonfem President John Mahama is currently busy selling Ghana’s agriculture to the highest bidder, and ditching 60% of the of the population, including the poorest of the poor, whose livelihoods are in danger of paying cut-throat royalties to giant US multinational corporations under the guise of promoting “food security and nutrition” for Ghanaians!

The pathetic thing about this is that the so-called “nutrition” only replaces our natural foods with genetically modified organisms impregnated with pesticides and doused with herbicides that we cannot even wash away before eating! This is not rocket science. The simple fact is that these chemical corporations want to sell their chemicals. And their bottom line is profit. If by putting them in our food, they would sell more, they will put them in our food. As Food Sovereignty Ghana recently pointed out,

“GMOs contain massive quantities of pesticides, a huge health threat. Close to 100% of all commercial GMO crops are genetically engineered to contain pesticides, or to absorb huge amounts of pesticides without being killed. When we consume the plants, or eat animals that consume the plants, we consume those pesticides that can injure heart, lungs, nerves, digestion, blood, skin, immunity, and sexual function and development.”

Yet, the first thing on the agenda of Ghana’s Parliament immediately after its recess, is to attempt to pass a law enabling plant breeders unfettered rights to impose it on Ghanaians. Apart from it being a way of making super-profits for these chemical corporations, and our agriculture dependent on them, there is absolutely nothing in it for Ghanaians! I used to support the NDC because of the way they talk of Kwame Nkrumah. Today I see that it is all talk and nothing to show for it!.

Today, as we celebrate Founder’s Day in honour of the Osagyefo, we still have a CIA asset’s statue in front of our only international airport which also bears his name! It is either E. K. Kotoka was right in removing Dr. Nkrumah from power, or his removal from power with the help of hostile foreign interests is unacceptable. You simply cannot have it both ways.

If we are going to scrap the holiday, we need to, at least change the name of Kotoka Airport and rename it Kwame Nkrumah International Airport! Yes! History must vindicate the Osagyefo in all its fullness! The last thing the NDC would do is to change the name for fear of antagonizing their Volta region stronghold! How can you opt to honour Nkrumah and keep that traitor's name and statue intact?

This is political opportunism at its highest level! And Ghanaians are seeing through this as clear as we see through pure water. There is no doubt that the traditional traducers of Nkrumah in the Busia-Danquah fraternity will jump at this and begin to take advantage of the senior comrades remarks to make ugly noises.

One such comment I read on Ghanaweb was:

“Dynamic countries pays little attention to their leaders.Ghana or Gold Coast did not start with Nkrumah.The country still needs good leaders to take her to the promise Land.The Soviets use to worship Lenin.The Chinese use to worship Mao.Their countries started moving forward when they let the past go.”

We do not owe it to anybody to follow any country, “dynamic” or otherwise. We owe it to ourselves, our traditions, and our moral values as a people to pay attention to our national heroes! There is a big difference between leaders and heroes. President Mahama is a leader, just like Ex-Presidents Kufuor and Rawlings were before him. But these are no heroes. As Mr. Kwame Mpianim once said, “Any idiot can be a flag-bearer”! After that, it is just a matter of winning votes.

“A nation that does not honor its heroes, will not long endure” is a quote by Abraham Lincoln that is as true today as the day he spoke it! If for the superstitious reasons being enumerated, some people do not want to respect their fathers because they prefer to be "dynamic children", that must by no means, mean that those of us who want to respect our fathers are wrong in doing so!

Let them make all the noise the want. This is a democracy. And they have the freedom of speech. That does not mean we have to listen to them. It is also our right to reject neocolonialist politics, colonialism, and slavery. In doing so, I would firmly maintain the observation of this special day reserved for the veneration of the best thing that ever happened to the ordinary person in Ghana: the birth of The Osagyefo, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!