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Nkrumah’s Death 42 Years Ago (1) -How He Died In Sekou Toure’s Guinea -Busia’s Sadistic Refusal To Allow Him Back To Ghana
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- Created on Tuesday, 06 May 2014 00:00
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Nkrumah’s Death 42 Years Ago (1) -How He Died In Sekou Toure’s Guinea -Busia’s...
Last Sunday, April 27, 2014 marked the 42nd anniversary of the death of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, a man with dazzling political charisma that made people instinctively hail him, a man with ever-flowing sagacity, dynamism, broadmindedness and flawless vision who initiated and actively pioneered the movement for Africa’s continental union government by which much of the world knew and revered him as Africa’s ‘primus polilticusis’ –Africa’s number one politician!
KULUNGUGU BOMB
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was allegedly killed by skin cancer, an ailment which eventuated after the Kulungugu bomb blast in 1963 which was aimed at his total death or instant execution from the world, so that in the expectation of his enemies, the illuminating glories and achievements he was amassing for himself in Ghana, Africa and the world, might halt immediately. But this did not happen.
The expected death of him never occurred, thanks to his military bodyguard, Captain Buckman, who upon nasally sensing the scent of an-about-to blast bomb from a bouquet of flowers which a seven year-old girl was about to present to President Nkrumah, quickly wrestled him down to the ground to avoid the about four feet high execution range of the bomb. The ground-falling, sprawling spell of Nkrumah drew his instinct of self-defence, and thus, he halfway raised his legs up a bit for an advantage to be on his feet again, when the blast went off, killing all those who were standing up around Nkrumah and the young ‘flower’ girl.
The sprawled-down Nkrumah and Captain Buckman, plus those who were standing several feet away from the scene, did not die, even though some of them sustained injuries. Several people died, but Dr Nkrumah had some scrapes and injuries on the legs which he raised up a bit during the wrestle melee. He was taken to the nearest clinic, then to Tamale hospital and later flown to Accra where his special doctors attended to him. He was healed though, but since some poisonous fragments of the bomb had delved into the skin of his legs, they kept harassing him on and off until some local herbal medicine was allegedly applied to ward them off at intervals.
Unfortunately, when Dr Nkrumah was travelling to Hanoi, Vietnam, three years after that 1963 hazard, only a little quantity of the herbal medicine that would last him for the visitation period was taken along, and when the coup of February 24, 1966 happened, he could not come back to Ghana to continue with his herbal treatment, hence the poisonous bomb fragments in the legs began to negatively hold sway over the body, defying all medical treatment in Guinea and Romania.
BUSIA’S REFUSAL
When in 1970-71 Dr. K. A. Busia was the then Prime Minister, heading the government of Ghana, a Guinean delegation was sent by the President of Guinea, Sekou Toure, to plead for the return of Dr Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana to continue with his efficacious herbal treatment, since the disease of cancer had defied all medical treatment, and Dr. Nkrumah was dying, Dr. Busia cruelly refused that request.
In the late 1971, another emissary from Guinea came to Dr K. A. Busia to reconsider his position, but that plea was sadistically rejected. Busia was a well-known Christian who often attended church services, and his refusal and hardheartedness in respect of the need to allow Nkrumah to return home for herbal treatment exacted harsh criticisms from CPP and many other people in Africa.
Busia’s recalcitrance undoubtedly drew the anger of the Nkrumaist soldiers in the army, and Colonel I. K. Acheampong was thereby compelled to overthrow Busia’s government on February 13, 1972, thus paving the way for the return of the ailing Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was then domiciled in Sekou Toure’s Guinea as a co-President.
Efforts by Col. I. K. Acheampong (later General Acheampong) to see to the return of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah were not favourably responded to, since Nkrumah’s sickness had reached a fatal point, and Sekou Toure, acting as a good brother, had decided that in the event of Nkrumah’s death, his (Nkrumah’s) corpse would be embalmed to last some years and buried in Guinea.
Dr. Francis Nkrumah, then a lecturer in Legon and later known as Professor Francis Nkrumah, the first son of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who then shuffled between Ghana and Guinea on account of his father’s sickness, was also of the view that at that stage of his father’s sickness he, as a medical doctor, would not recommend the return of his father to Ghana, for his conditions were deathly.
And therefore, within three months of Nkrumaist I. K. Acheapong’s reign as a head of state, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, sadly and pitiably died, not on the home soil of his own Ghana, but in the foreign land of Guinea, to the joy and happiness of his hate-filled, malevolent, rancorous and shamefully envenomed enemies in Ghana. That red-letter day was April 27, 1972 – a Thursday!
The news of his death immediately cut to the quick the rank and file of CPP members, and lots of people visibly mourned and shed tears; for, as we say in Fante, ‘the great oak tree had been devastatingly uprooted down’ (“odum kese no etutu ahwe fa mu”). Yes, the great oak tree of Ghana and Africa had prematurely been uprooted. The oak tree, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, had had his lifespan cut short on this earth, cut short by his enemies, who from the time he left the UGCC to form his own party (the CPP) in 1949, had sought to kill him through series of bomb blasts at CPP rallies, and through close-range shots at Flagstaff House, which deflected.
It is to be remembered that within the UGCC, which had been formed by no other person than Paa Grant, a great, wealthy merchant and businessman who was resident at Takoradi, and who was, by a twist of fortune, the uncle of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the lawyer-members (Dr. J. B. Danquah, Obetsebi Lamptey, Akufo Addo, etc.) were largely managing all the ongoing political affairs, through their own legal perspectives, but not with the necessary political knowhow.
Dr. Nkrumah was the only trained politician in UGCC, having already reached the heights of his Political Science upbringing with a doctorate degree. His Positive Action objective meant to be a conduit for a quick achievement of political freedom in the then Gold Coast, was misunderstood and disliked by the UGCC lawyers. And that brought about disparities and quarrels and the final exit of Dr. Nkrumah to form his own party, the CPP which he successfully led until the 1966 coup.
What is to be noted here is that during his political exile in Guinea, Dr. Nkrumah wrote more than six books, thus putting to shame the Danquah-Busia followers who parade some funny whimsicalities that Dr. Busia was a Professor and more learned than Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. But if you compare the over 18 books which Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrote, with the less than seven books which Dr. Busia wrote, you can draw your own conclusion as to who was more intellectual.
Of course, in the academic world, the evaluation of one’s intellectuality is the ability to write books and articles which inform and educate people.
And remember, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah also wrote series of articles in his own newspaper ‘The Evening News’ and other newspapers, thus through his writing and publishing showmanship, Nkrumah remains an intellectual giant of all ages, an academic superman and a true “primus politicusis” of the African continent.
Therefore, it still remains a mystery why Busia, an intellectual, should choose to show a damnable cathartic cruelty to his fellow intellectual Nkrumah, who was sick and therefore yearned to go back to his native land to receive healing. Was Busia still afraid of Kwame Nkrumah? That’s a thousand-dollar question!
When Nkrumah died on April 27, 1972, I was still a professional teacher, who upon hearing the sad news, shut myself in my room, expressing my utmost grief in writing a poem (an elegy), which went into 38 verses within three days (Friday evening to Sunday morning). The poem was written in Miltonic style, with Shakespearean cultural flourishes; and when later I was employed as a Research Writer at Ghanaian Times, in 1974-76, I used to recite it at the Ghana Arts Council and people were moved to tears! Unfortunately, the bulk of the poetry is missing, but I hope to publish what remains, so to vividly present Africa’s unique personage, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, to future generations in order that they can know who Nkrumah truly was! He died at the age of 63, not yet an old man, but a person at the fringes of his middle age who still had the guts to bring his African Unification idea to fruition. Kwame, GOODBYE.
DA YIE, SLEEP WELL, WO DJOGBAA, SHEEIDE SAAFI, NA DEENWIE,… DAABUOO!
(Next week, we shall consider what have been tragically amiss in Ghana and Africa after Nkrumah’s death.)
03 May 2014
Source: By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
No commentsAkufo-Addo meets South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission
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Akufo-Addo meets South Africa’s Independent Electoral Commission
The Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the May 7 South African national and provincial elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Sunday, met with Commissioners of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa, the permanent body created to promote and safeguard a credible electoral system in the country.
The meeting, organised by the IEC, was intended to brief international observers, who have been accredited to monitor Wednesday’s elections, including a large African Union (AU) contingent, led by President J.A Kufuor, and a group from the Southern African equivalent of ECOWAS, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), about the preparedness of the Commission and the measures that have been put in place to ensure a successful election.
The briefing, which was held at the Results Operation Centre of the IEC, located at the Pretoria Show Grounds, had the deputy Chairperson of the IEC, Mr. Terry Tselane and Mr. Granville Abrahams, Manager of Electoral Affairs, briefing observers present at the meeting.
According to Mr. Tselane, there are four key areas which will determine whether the elections in South Africa will be credible or not. These areas, he stated, include the quality of the voters’ register, quality of the electoral staff, quality of logistics for Election Day, and finally a conducive political environment.
He explained that a total of 25,390,159 South Africans had been registered for the elections, out of a population of some 53 million people, representing 47.9% of the total population. He further indicated that a total of 218,000 electoral staff had been properly trained and were ready for deployment. In addition to the 218,000 electoral staff, Mr Tselane revealed that a “buffer staff” had been trained and were on standby to be deployed to polling stations which face logistical and operational difficulties on election day.
Mr. Tselane added that all election materials, as at Sunday, had been distributed to all the polling districts in the country. He therefore assured the observers that the IEC was satisfied about what they had achieved so far and were ready to deliver a credible, free, fair and transparent election come May 7.
Electoral Affairs
Mr. Granville Abrahams, the IEC’s Manager for Electoral Affairs, also briefed the observers on the operational processes that have led to the May 7 elections.
He pointed out that a total of 22,263 polling districts had been set up for the elections. Out of this number, 1,255 voting districts, where voter populations are high, will have “sub-centres”, whose aim is to ensure that the time it takes for voters to cast their ballot is drastically reduced.
Mr. Abrahams indicated that maps, containing the IEC’s proposed locations for electoral districts, are given to political parties for their inputs to be made as to whether they agree or otherwise to the location of these districts.
As contained in the electoral legislation, Mr. Abrahams revealed that there has been a continuous registration of voters in the country. Also, a period of 2 weeks was given for the registration of voters abroad, with more than 26,000 voters registering to vote on May 7. Prisoners were also allowed to register, he added.
On the training of the 218,000 electoral staff, he stated that the training was “broken down into 3 modules”. The first training module, Mr. Abrahams said, was on the importance of democracy, with the second training on the registration of voters. The third and final training module, he added, was election day processes and activities.
“Public servants, municipal officials, teachers and other volunteers make up the 218,000 strong electoral staff,” he added.
Mr. Abrahams said that special voting was open to all voters, who for one reason or the other cannot vote on voting day, as well for all those who are sick “and qualify for a home visit.”
Ballot papers, the IEC man revealed, have numerous security features embossed on them, thus making it difficult to counterfeit.
Declaration of Results
According to Mr. Abrahams, the law requires that results of elections must be announced within 7 days after the close of polls, stressing that results cannot be declared within the first 48 hours. This, he maintained, was very important so as to ensure that appeals from political parties, that may impact on the final results, are addressed before final declaration is made by the IEC.
He also explained that an audit of the results at every counting station is done by an internationally recognised audit firm, before the final results are transmitted to the IEC’s Results Operation Centre.
Nana Akufo-Addo was accompanied by the other two members of the Observer Mission, Hon. Dorothy Pine-McLarty OJ, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Jamaica, Sheikh Abdul Carimo Nordine Sau, who is the President of the National Elections Commission of Mozambique and a team from the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
Cadres, Krobo Chiefs Supports Terkper
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Cadres, Krobo Chiefs Supports Terkper
The United Cadre’s Front (UCF) of National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Kroboland, and some chiefs in the area have registered their displeasure over recent calls made by some stalwarts of the ruling party for President John Dramani Mahama to sack his Finance Minister, Seth Terkper.
The groups are rallying support for Mr Terkper, a native of Kroboland.
According to the cadres and the chiefs – Nene Tetteh Agbleze III, dvisional chief of Plau Yilo Krobo Traditional Area and Setse Odehebi Keklebesi Apana, senior citizen and stool father of Okper Adumam-Kordum Royal Clan, Yilo Krobo Traditional Area in the Eastern Region – the current economic crisis confronting the country was not orchestrated by the embattled Finance Minster.
The NDC cadres and the chiefs, in separate press statements, condemned the Central Regional Communication Director of the NDC Allotey Jacobs, and Alhaji Bature Iddrisu of the Hajj newspaper over what they called “irresponsible, destructive and inflammable utterances” they made on two Accra-based radio stations- Adom FM and Citi FM between March 28, 2014 and March 29, 2014, calling on them to withdraw their comments.
The two Krobo traditional leaders stated: “We condemn Mr. Allotey Jacobs’ irresponsible destructive and inflammable utterance which described the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper as Judas of NDC as grossly improper, a calculated attempt by Mr. Allotey Jacobs and some members of NDC to destroy the good and transparent works of the Finance Minister.”
Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Bature last month during separate radio talk-shows called on President Mahama to sack Mr. Terkper. They claimed that he (Mr. Terkper) was incapable of managing Ghana’s economy, blaming him for the current economic crisis.
But the cadres and the chiefs believed Mr. Terkper as a “Minister of Finance inherited an unstable Global Economy falling of international commodity prices of our main exports such as gold and cocoa and virtually empty public coffers.”
The chiefs observed that “Seth Terkper is only acting as an auto mechanic making efforts to repair a faulty vehicle manufactured by someone, which is like the economy of this country created in bad condition inherited by the Minister which requires correction and improvement as he is doing.”
According to the cadres, the minister, since his assumption of office, had “done away with unsustainable financial policies that prove harmful to Ghana’s Economy.”
They continued: “He had proved himself to be a man of public probity putting economic interest of the nation before narrow sectarian concerns and personal gain. And as such we do not expect for people to be attacking such a hardworking minister who is trying to transform our crawling economy for the better.”
The cadres indicated that “those who seek to derail Seth Terkper seek to derail and destroy the progress he is undoubtedly making in rehabilitating our national economy for Ghana’s betterment as a nation.”
Source: Daily Guide/Ghana
BoG Predicts Stable Cedi In 2nd Half Of 2014
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BoG Predicts Stable Cedi In 2nd Half Of 2014
Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Henry Kofi Wampah, has predicted the cedi and the economy will stabilise in the second half of the year, when proceeds from Cocobod’s 2014/15 dollar syndicated loan for cocoa purchases are received by the central bank.
This year’s loan deal, which is estimated to be US$1.8billion and the highest Cocobod has raised in two crop seasons, will be used to purchase beans during the 2014/2015 cocoa harvest.
“This year we are expecting a bigger crop in terms of value because the price is higher than last year. It is going to be more than 50 percent higher than last year, so at least the second half of the year looks a lot better than what we have in the first half. I believe that we will see stability going forward,” Dr. Wampah said in an interview with the B&FT.
The local currency has fallen rapidly in the first four months of the year after Ghana’s current account deficit worsened to unsustainable levels and the fiscal deficit remained high at 11 percent of GDP.
Major import industries such as car dealerships have borne the brunt of the currency’s slide, which has also pushed up inflation to a four-year record while damaging business confidence.
The Governor said the cedi has seen some stability over the past few weeks, and that the BoG is still monitoring the impact of its extraordinary policies to stem its steep decline.
The latest of the policies, announced last month, was an increase in the cash reserve requirement of banks from 9 percent to 11 percent of deposits. It followed an earlier hike in the central bank’s policy rate and tighter regulations on the use of foreign currencies in domestic transactions.
“We will review [the measures] at our next meeting and see how developments are. Based on that, if we need to take any additional action, we will,” said Dr. Wampah.
Asked whether further tightening of monetary policy is on the cards, he replied: “I can’t tell if there will be further tightening. It is not a decision by me alone but a committee that will meet and review all the issues”.
The BoG’s next monetary-policy meeting is likely to take place in June.
Last year’s cocoa syndicated loan of US$1.2billion will purchase 850,000 tonnes of cocoa beans in the ongoing season which began in October 2013. Cocobod had previously estimated an output of 830,000 tonnes.
Source: B&FT
Party Executives Shouldn’t Sit In Cabinet Meetings – CDD
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Party Executives Shouldn’t Sit In Cabinet Meetings – CDD
The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) is proposing that governments must cease the practice of allowing party officials to sit in Cabinet meetings.
The CDD is therefore, calling for a clear distinction between serious government business and party matters.
The Executive Director of the CDD, Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi made this call in an interview with Citi News.
This follows a proposal made by the governing National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) General Secretary; Johnson Asiedu Nketia that government should consider using the money being saved in the Heritage Fund for future generations.
He defended his proposal saying, it is to strengthen the economy because it does not make economic sense to keep money in an offshore account when government is busily seeking foreign aid to support its economy.
It is reported that Mr. Nketia, has been attending cabinet meetings but Professor Gyima Boadi believes if there were clear distinctions, such major proposals would not come from a party executive.
He noted that it is imperative for the country “to get away from this evolving culture and practice in government.”
According to him, the practice should be abhorred and Ghana governments should “leave political parties executives to be political party executives and leave the government to run as a government that we the people of Ghana have constituted.”
CDD’s Executive Director pointed out that Ghanaians “vote a government into office but we do not vote a political party into office.”
Ghana’s Cabinet is the responsible body which assists the President in the determination of general policy of the government.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana stipulates that the Cabinet must consist of the President, the Vice-President and not more than 19 Ministers of state.
Source: citifmonline