Opinions of Sunday, 19 April 2015

Columnist: Prof. Lungu

Nkrumah Was Not Prepared To Govern For Dummies!

".... we will now state that it is they, the Danquah-Busia-Dumbo confederates and their "right-wing bourgeois reactionaries" who must apologize to the People of Ghana for the "prevailing" and continued "socioeconomic chaos ravaging" Ghana today. After all, it is they who connived with foreign agents and absent-minded "Darwinist" military subversives to plot the maiden coup d'état that overthrew the first elected government of the People of Ghana in 1966...." (Prof Lungu, 14 April, 2015).


The attention-seeking essay by Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, apologist for Danquah and Busia, titled "Nkrumah Was Ill-Prepared To Lead And Govern Ghana" that appeared on Ghanaweb 15 April was disingenuous, perfectly out of historical context, and totally amusing.


A country like Ghana is not the property of one leader. It always took a team willing to work together, a Team willing to support "the leader". So, if Nkrumah was "Ill-Prepared To Lead And Govern Ghana", Dr. Danquah certainly failed at even playing second fiddle to Nkrumah in the fight for independence for the Gold Coast. Even worse, merely 9 months after Ghana's independence, on 4 December 1957, Busia, another UP-NLM-Dombo-PP traitor, was sending secret telegrams from the US Embassy in Accra to Washington DC asking for $25,000, "(not 10)", for his NLM party, and complaining to the minority Republicans in the US Congress that Nkrumah and the CPP were exploring relations with other countries, including the USSR.


In fact, had Danquah-Busia had their way, Ghana would have had 12 or more chieftains of regional nonentities, hopeless quasi-states, to be sure. Those quasi-states, if they still existed, would now be wallowing in wars, atrocities, and human vermin, just like the Sudan, Somalia, Libya, even Nigeria, today. Or worse!


To claim that Dr. Danquah, multiple loser of every political contest even in his own home town, to say that Danquah suddenly became the "doyen" of Gold Coast politics after his death, when the same Danquah could not deliver Ghana's independence, is the mark of a dummy corpse of latter day self-aggrandizing, immature, and conflicted individuals confused about the substance and direction of Ghanaian history, within the larger World history and record.


We are saying that the pseudo-doyen of Gold Coast politics was not bright at politics, or even law. All the records show that Danquah was certainly not knowledgeable or uniquely skilled in politics or human relations. Danquah, after all, was not a "Verandah Boy". Even though the entire Akyem Abuakwa community were directly taxed to pay for Danquah's education in England, Danquah had nothing but contempt for the average Ghanaian when he returned to practice law in Accra, far away from Bempong /Akyem Abuakwa, in 1927. Danquah was selfish as reported by the British and US officials. He had it all twisted to serve himself and kin. In fact, we know that Danquah, the attorney, was the only principal member of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), who did not contribute a single penny to fund Nkrumah's travel back to Ghana in 1947 to assist the UGCC in a project the UGCC was miserably failing at. So, this same stingy Danquah did not construct a single building in his poor Bempong-Akyem Abuakwa hometown, even after all the financial and moral support he received from his towns people in taxes, sweat, and blood.


It is galling that Danquah's latter day followers, among them Drs. Okoampa Ahoofe and Amoako-Baah, are directly oblivious of the significance of all of that sorry Danquah history of non-performance and mediocre achievement . Now they are trying to tell us roads, bridges, dams, schools, hospitals, factories, military barracks, ports, ships, and similar development infrastructure are not important for a new African country lifting the yoke of colonialism. Otherwise, they must now be shamefully engaged in bald-faced propaganda that is rather easy to decipher by any the objective, Ghana-centered, person.


Ask any Ghanaian and they will tell you that every village idiot knows that human beings matter, that human beings are actually above Grass, and Trees, and Drums, and Cowries, and Goats. A Ghanaian will also tell you that any one worth their weight in their favorite pot of fufu-and-soup knows that "the liberty of the individual" does not trump the interests of the village or community. Nkrumah understood all of this, hence his Unitary Vision for Ghana. This winning Vision is in direct contradiction to the myopic political vision of confederacy, precisely they type advocated by the losing Danquah-Busia-Dumbo cohorts.


By rational thought, common sense, experience, and an uncommon sense of human history, Nkrumah also understood that for the larger Ghanaian community, the ultimate end of the Danquah-Busia-Dumbo "liberty of the individual" mantra was utter destruction for the new Nation-State. After all, they were, during the 1950s and 1960s, responsible for Molotov cocktails and bombs at innocent people, visitors to Ghana, and Nkrumah himself; to include agitating in dark street corners and conniving in treasonous fashion with foreign agents. Just go ask Madam Elizabeth Asantewaa, one of the victims of the bombings who lost her leg as a young innocent girl at the Accra Sports Stadium in Janaury, 1963, Six Ghanaians died in the stadium on that day. Or Kulungugu, near Bawku, a year earlier in August, 1962, when more than 10 innocent Ghanaians died, and many more were injured, some never to fully recover.


To cut to the chase, the good news for all Ghanaians today is that the self-aggrandizing, conflicted, and confused Danquah-Busia-Confederates lost! Nkrumah, with his Unitary Vision for all of Ghana won, and Ghana won big, as a result!


Fact remains, in 1957, Dr. Nkrumah, against the wishes, prostrations, propaganda, and destructive acts of the Danquah-Busia Confederates led our forebears in the Gold Coast to freedom and independence by fighting for "Independence Now," just as President Lincoln led the American Union to victory over the Confederate South during 1861-1865. In other words, Dr. Nkrumah humanely did to the Danquah-Busia confederates in old-fashioned politics and democratic governance what Lincoln did to the Southern secessionist confederates in total, destructive Civil War.


Suffice to say that Nkrumah and Lincoln were both very well prepared to govern in their time. In fact, Nkrumah and Lincoln were already governing, as Prime Minister and President, when they won the greatest gifts for their countries: freedom and independence from an imperial colonizing regime for Ghana, and preservation of the union of the United States of America, respectively.


But, before the reader begins to say this is just Prof Lungu talking, the reader should take a moment to review all the things Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe said about Dr. Nkrumah in 2004, before Okoampa-Ahoofe was not for Dr. Nkrumah and the CPP. This, courtesy Atakora-Mensah who asked the other day, "When did his (Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe's) lobotomy occur"?


NOTE: For readability, we have "lobotomized" the text below to make Dr. Okoampa-Ahoofe simple to read and easy to understand as all good teachers must do.

Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe now speaks for himself, on behalf of Dr. Nkrumah and the CPP.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe ----------------------------------------------------------

READ: "....It is...instructive...that none of the...coup d'états have been staged by any other than bona fide members of the Ghanaian military. Granted, some rascal civilians...staunchly backed regressively Darwinian means of political access, including a world-renowned...former prime minister (Busia). Interestingly, in July 1956, when President Nkrumah's...CPP...won a landslide victory... Busia rode herd on a delegation to the British office in London, to petition the British Crown, and...colonial overlord, to desist from granting the already-scheduled return of Ghana to self-governance. Fortunately... Busia and his right-wing bourgeois reactionaries did not succeed. (Busia)...however, succeed ten years later in backing the military junta that unseated the Nkrumah administration and facilitated the precipitous devolution of Ghanaian national destiny....\

\....Indeed...Ghana's major and...only international airport is named for...Kotoka....outlaw who spearheaded the grossly unimaginative overthrow of the constitutionally elected government of the CPP... Mr. Rawlings, whose...parentage is purported to be Scottish, presided over the dastardly kidnapping and summary execution of three Ghanaian supreme court judges, all of whom belonged to a single ethnic nationality....Needless to say, the 1966 Kotoka-led coup initiated the barbaric, neo-colonial military dynasty that Ghanaian continue to suffer….\

\... In fact, many of the most vociferous civilian opposition party leaders, some of whom are currently sitting in parliament, representing misguided and hoodwinked constituents, are known to have collaborated with Kotoka's so-called National Liberation Council to unseat President Nkrumah. It is also significant to observe that these...rascals and executive...muggers continue to dominate whatever passes by the name of "the legitimate opposition." This state of affairs, coupled with a largely under-educated and under-informed electorate, has made it almost impossible to rectify the prevailing socioeconomic chaos ravaging the country.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------END - Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe---------------------------------------------------

Above "Taken from “SOUNDS OF SIRENS: ESSAYS IN AFRICAN POLITICS & CULTURE”, Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr (2004)," courtesy Atakora-Mensah, Ghanaweb, 2015-04-15 13:21:28.


So you see, it was actually the Danquah-Busia confederates who were ill-prepared to govern, if they will be true to themselves. In fact, history shows that these confederate-federalists were actively behind the destruction of the Nkrumah/CPP regime and legacy, as cited by Okoampa-Ahoofe above. As such, the Danquah-Busia confederates were even worse than passive observers. Some, like Busia, were traitors to Ghana and as a result, among the scum of the earth!

In the end, we will now state that it is they, the Danquah-Busia-Dumbo confederates and their "right-wing bourgeois reactionaries" who must apologize to the People of Ghana for the "prevailing" and continued "socioeconomic chaos ravaging" Ghana today. After all, it is they who connived with foreign agents and absent-minded "Darwinist" military subversives to plot the maiden coup d'état that overthrew the first elected government of the People of Ghana in 1966.


You can take the record, all of it, to the bank, if you care! When you get there, just ask for Dr. Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe or Attorney Dr. Samuel Adjei-Sarfo, when they are honest with themselves on any good Harmattan Day in Nkrumah's Ghana. "Right-wing bourgeois reactionaries", they called themselves!


Give us a break!


Better yet, Mr. Akuffo Addo Dankwa, President-of-Ghana-Wannabe, please tell you apologists and loose mouths to shut up for once!


Prof. Lungu is Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud. Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA. Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©17 April, 2015.