NPP has downgraded AU Day – Ablakwa

The Ranking Member on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, has accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of belittling the relevance of the Africa Union (AU) Day celebration.

He said it was worrying that the NPP, through its Majority in the Seventh Parliament, passed the new Holidays Act, making the day a commemorative day instead of a regular national holiday.

“We warned them an NDC government will restore AU Day as a national holiday in honour of the role the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah played in the formation of the Organisation of African Union (OAU) which later became AU,” he remarked.

“The NPP should be ashamed of itself for cancelling the day as a holiday stemming from the role Ghana played in the fight against neo-colonisation and the promotion of Pan-Africanism,” he added.

The NDC MP for North Tongu in the Volta Region made these remarks in an interview with The Citizens Show's sit-in host Nana Ama Agyarko, on Accra 100.5 FM on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

“Whereas some African countries were celebrating the day as a national holiday, Ghana, which was at the forefront of African unity, was commemorating it,” he bemoaned.

He explained that Ghana was the toast of African unity and yet 60 years after AU, “we can't even celebrate as other countries are celebrating.”

“This is sad and does not give Dr. Kwame Nkrumah the deserving status,” he averred.

He touted Dr Kwame Nkrumah as an icon of Africa.

Mr Ablakwa said Nkrumah saw African unity way, way before the Europeans saw the European Union, adding that Ghana’s first president had his statue erected in front of the AU head office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

"People are celebrating the man, and at home, we have refused to celebrate his exploits,” he bemoaned further.