What Sekou may have missed about Nkrumah’s good work

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

Apparently Mr. Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana's first President, lacks full understanding of what is happening on the scene in Ghana and Africa today.  To point to the NDC as the only viable regime to carry on the unfinished work of his father is to belittle the greatness of Nkrumah.

One thing we would not quibble with is the greatness of Sekou’s father, but why would he want the NDC to fill Nkrumah’s shoes?

The NDC, in the personage of Rawlings and the PNDC, was in power for 19 years.  Sekou has asked in his statement for the public to ignore some of Rawlings’ ranting as he described him as a man prone to “negative and unconstructive criticism of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).”  Besides this not being a very charitable way to depict the man who founded the NDC, Sekou would still have the difficulty of separating Rawlings from the NDC before his statement becomes credible.

Rawlings is the man whose singular act brought the NDC to birth.  Now he is the NDC just as much as the NDC is Rawlings, like it or not.

As said, the NDC was in power for 19 years. One would have thought that it had enough time to shore up or finish some of the great work Nkrumah started.  Contrast this with the NPP rule under Kufuor and you will note that every aspect of Nkrumah’s development plans is being pursued restlessly with some remarkable successes already in place.

It took Nkrumah, less than five years to bring the Akosombo Dam from plan to finish and had it not been for the coup that plan would have included the Bui Dam too.  The construction of the Bui Dam is set to start by the end of this August 2007.

It took some 34 years after Nkrumah for Kufuor to assume the presidency. His recent speech, delivered when he swore in his new set of ministers for his final year in office; a speech that some have called “value for money government” speech, was enough to tell the world where his heart was.

In that speech he said, among other things, that ““a lot of good things” was about to happen to Ghana “between now and the next year.”  Among the good things he mentioned were the construction of the Mallam Junction-Tetteh-Quarshie dual-carriageway, the construction of which would begin early next year; the establishment of a bauxite refinery, and of course the cutting of the sod for the start of the construction on the 400-megawatt Bui Dam.

Now how long was the NDC in power again?  These projects have been on the books since Nkrumah’s days.  It was Nkrumah’s dream to build the “Golden Triangle” of roadways in the country, starting with the Tema Motorway, which he completed, and also to extend rail transportation into the country.  He finished the Akyease-Kotoku and Tema lines before he was overthrown.

These projects are important because they form part of the bulwark of Nkrumah’s dream to build a sound infra-structure for Ghana.  Are we to believe then that these projects had already been completed prior to the year 2000 under the NDC regime?  If so then we missed the completion dates.

Even so, it would take a lot of gall not to note that these projects of Nkrumah have either been tackled or are being accomplished in a major way under Kufuor and the NPP administration, including a string of rail lines now under construction that would extend rail transportation to the North and possibly beyond. 

But then, it would also require a generous spirit to note that good ideas do not come in partisan colors.  That they come in national colors; not only in NPP, or NDC or CPP colors.

It should be uplifting to note that Ghana has gained a lot in recent years.  Never since the days of Nkrumah has she gained so much attention and respect in the eyes of the world.  The current president whom the NDC has constantly failed to notice as a worthy successor to Nkrumah is being acknowledged as a praiseworthy leader by all his peers on the continent and, consequently, has been elected unanimously to the chair of the AU this year.

In all this, there has never been a moment when Kufuor has failed to be gracious about Nkrumah.  Witness the speeches he made during the Ghana@50 celebration and the compassion he showered on Sekou’s own mother, through her illness to the moment she passed away this year.

In recent years, on a visit to Mali, Kufuor brought to the surface the memory and the spirit of the Ghana, Guinea, Mali Federation, at least in the eyes of the Malian who knew about the formation of this federation in 1963. The federation was Nkrumah’s idea and he was joined by Sekou Toure of Guinea and Modibo Keita of Mali.  Kufuor was aware of how potent the idea of the federation was and probably regretted that its full potential was not realized.

Now why would I say regret?  You only have to link Kufuor’s enthusiasm to revive Nkrumah’s wish for an integrated aluminum industry in Ghana now to the fact that this federation would have controlled over a third of the world’s known supply of bauxite to understand! 

All things African aside, wouldn’t you think that cornering the bauxite market for the emancipation of Africa could also have been on Nkrumah’s mind? 

Sekou may not have understood the full depth and breadth of his own father’s work, if his claim was that the NDC was the only party left to continue the work of Nkrumah when the job was being done right under his very eyes.

Many of Nkrumah’s development plans and ideas have been on the back burner since 1966 and for the whole time the NDC was in power until now.  The question to ask Sekou is why not the CPP to continue the good work; why not resuscitate the party his father created?  Could the answer be that it would be too much of a demand?

One fact is clear.  Just as Nkrumah built the CPP so did Rawlings the NDC.  The difference is the NDC was built on violence which is contrary to anything that Nkrumah stood for.  Nkrumah was quick to speak out against the first coup in Nigerian on January 15, 1966 when it happened. Rawlings was a serial coup maker.

Some have wondered all these years whether Kufuor was a closet Nkrumahist because he has been steadily fulfilling some of the vision of Nkrumah.  But then Nkrumahism is not necessarily a party affiliation.  It is the spirit, the ability and the capacity to make Africa free, proud and prosperous and consequently Ghana a powerful nation.

A leadership under Professor Atta Mills may be able to continue the works of both Nkrumah and Kufuor, but that does not necessarily follow that a leadership under the NPP would not be able to do the same the next time.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Washington, DC, August 15, 2007