Statement On NDC’s Participation In The 50th Anniversary Of Ghana’s Independence Delivered By The National Chairman Of The NDC, Dr. Kwabena Adjei At A Press Conference Held On Sunday 4th March 2007 At The NDC Head Office, Accra.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press:
On behalf of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), I welcome all of you to this afternoon’s Press Conference and express our profound appreciation for your acceptance to honour our invitation and provide us coverage on no other day but the Sunday just preceding the actual date of Ghana ’s Golden Jubilee.
Come Tuesday, Ghana would be 50. Our dear country shall have come a very long way since the wee hours of 6th March, 1957, when the old British Union Jack was lowered and the New Ghana Flag made up of Red, Gold, Green stripes with the Black Star in the middle, was hoisted to signal Ghana’s Independence and the gallant march towards proving that the black man is capable of managing his own affairs and taking his destiny into his own hands. In an atmosphere of unity and peace, the new Ghanaians celebrated that very rare occasion in their history with ecstasy and pageantry.
The Independence of Ghana on March 6, 1957, will always remain a monumental milestone in the annals of Ghanaian and African history because that event did not only bring considerable pride and honour to Ghana and all its citizens, but more importantly it became the torch that shone on the path of the African liberation struggle.
Ladies and gentlemen of the press:
Ghana’s 50th Anniversary is an occasion that every Ghanaian irrespective of his or her political persuasion, creed, ethnic origin, social or economic standing must look forward to participating in with a demonstrable sense of accomplishment, patriotic pride and joy. There are compelling reasons for this important statement and I now proceed to highlight five of them.
Firstly, the occasion provides the opportunity for the nation to remember and honour her past heroes. In this respect, only a few days ago on February 28, 2007, Ghana as a nation remembered three of her fallen heroes, namely Sergeant Adjetey, Lance Coporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey, who paid the ultimate price during the struggle for Ghana’s Independence.
We in the NDC are strongly convinced and will remain convinced that these three gallant heroes, as well as the Nii Kwabena Bonneys, the “Unknown Soldier” and the war veterans did not struggle or die in vain. We feel it in our marrows that these truly historic freedom fighters deserve the greatest reverence and honour we as living Ghanaians can bestow on them for their immense contribution towards securing for the people of Ghana their fundamental freedoms, rights, honour, dignity and pride through the attainment of Independence in 1957. We are therefore of the strongest view that the images and contributions of these gallant past heroes in Ghana ’s struggle towards independence must feature very prominently in the Ghana@50 celebrations. There is the need to re-echo the patriotic theme that Ghana was and is always worth struggling and dying for.
The NDC salutes the contributions of all the heroes of our independence struggle.
Indeed, it our greatest passion that the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, acknowledged incontrovertibly worldwide as the Number One African Freedom Fighter, the greatest Pan-Africanist and the greatest African political personality of the 20th Century should be revered by all Ghanaians as the Founder of our beloved nation, and immortalized in the national psyche as a courageous, inspirational and visionary leader of unparalleled selflessness, commitment and dedication to the cause of the oppressed, the repressed, and the exploited in Ghana , Africa and elsewhere.
What more can the NDC do than on the 6th of March 2007 stand up, salute and gladden the soul of the great Nkrumah, the fearless man who led the struggle for “Self Government Now”, the giant of an African politician who led Ghana as the first African country, south of the Sahara, to attain independence on 6th March 1957 from British colonialist, the charismatic and visionary leader who in the course of executing rapid social, political and economic transformations in Ghana became a target of assassination plots, bomb attack at Kulungungu and imperialist destabilization schemes championed by the CIA that eventually resulted in his overthrow while on a noble peace mission to Hanoi, Vietnam on 24th February 1966?
What else can the NDC do than to use the same occasion to salute and pay tribute to those innocent Ghanaian patriots who died or were maimed as a result of the bombs that members of the Danquah-Busia opposition threw at CPP rallies in order to weaken the anti-colonial resistance movement and sabotage the progressive post-colonial development agenda of the Osagyefo?
Ladies and gentlemen of the press:
The NDC cherishes the intellectual prowess, extraordinary political stature, incisive vision and venerable mission of Nkrumah in the affairs of Ghana , Africa and the entire world during his political life. It needs to be made very clear that the roles Kwame Nkrumah played during his tenure of political leadership in Ghana can never be modified, downgraded, changed or erased by those he aptly called the imperialist and neo-colonialist lackeys.
For those Ghanaian politicians and intellectuals who pathologically hate to hear the name of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, hate to hear the slogan, “Nkrumah Never Dies”, hate to see Nkrumah’s images and even hate innocent students who read Nkrumah’s books, let them for once sit up, think and understand that while Nkrumah is physically dead, his intellectual ideals and political vision still linger on.
Let no one be deceived into believing that Nkrumah’s mission is a Mission Accomplished or was a Mission Frustrated! We pay and will continue to pay glowing tribute to Nkrumah because his political vision and mission are as relevant today as they were in the past and will continue to be relevant for a long time to come. We will continue to position Nkrumah and all that he stood for in our collective psyche to serve as an inspiration for accomplishing his mission for Ghana and Africa . Indeed, we are of the view it is a tragic error that the birthplace, images, works and achievements of the Osagyefo have not been more prominently featured in the various Golden Jubilee Anniversary activities organized by the planners at the Ghan@50 Secretariat.
The second reason why every Ghanaian must freely and proudly participate in the Ghana@50 Anniversary Celebration without reservations is the need to demonstrate our collective respect for what signifies
Ghana as a sovereign nation. We believe that no patriotic Ghanaian would refuse to honour the Ghana National Flag designed by Mrs. Theodosia Okoh, refuse to be upstanding in reverence for the Ghana National Anthem composed by Mr. Philip Gbeho and refuse to venerate Ghana ’s Coat Of Arms, designed by Mr. Nii Amon Nikoi.
The Ghana@50 Anniversary Celebration gives Ghanaians the opportunity to mass up at the Parade to demonstrate their respect and patriotism for Ghana and recognize the important contributions of Mrs. Theodosia Okoh, Mr. Philip Gbeho and Mr. Nii Amon Nikoi to building a new nation. More importantly, the occasion should remind us of our history, identity, achievements, failures and plans for the future—up to the next 50 years when Ghana will celebrate her Centenary.
The NDC reveres our national symbols as invariable components of our national consciousness because they tend to reinforce our history and identity as a people, socialize us politically, strengthen our collective resolve to be bound in unity, common fate and destiny, remind us of the moral and legal bases of our very existence, gear our leaders towards good governance and give guidance to our daily civil lives.
The Ghana@50 Parade is a political platform at which the imagery of our national symbols, heroes and consciousness take the centre stage. The NDC therefore needs to show up at the Parade to signal its patriotic spirit, its avowed intention to keep the independence flame burning, its resolve to resist the oppressors rule and its tenacity to hold neo-colonialism in whatever form in check.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:
There is a third reason why the NDC finds that every PNDC and NDC member, supporter and sympathizer should readily embrace participation in the Ghana ’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations. It is a fact of history that out of the 50 years of Ghana ’s independence, the PNDC and the NDC regimes had ruled successively for 19 good years. Neither can anyone can feign ignorance to this reality nor seek vainly to downgrade the immense contributions made by the Rawlings-led PNDC and NDC regimes to the development and growth of Ghana without creating the crisis of confidence and crisis of solidarity that have since characterized the planning and execution of the Golden Jubilee Anniversary.
From December 1981, PNDC and NDC political appointees, cadres, bureaucrats and technocrats toiled, and lived selflessly, sacrificed their lives and died under the most challenging socio-economic conditions until they succeeded in bequeathing a softer and more enabling economic and political conditions to the new NPP administration in January, 2001. It therefore does the nation no political good for any person to consider the NDC governance role as irrelevant in the political history of this country. We therefore view with utmost disgust the blatant dishonesty on the part of the NPP regime to downplay the roles of the PNDC and the NDC in the governance of this nation. We in the NDC warn that we have massive following and that any attempts to relegate our party to the background of history in the Ghana@50 Celebrations and thereafter will invariably exacerbate the exiting feelings of political exclusion, discrimination, division and extreme partisanship with ominous consequences for Mother Ghana.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:
We now take on the fourth reason that compels the NDC to show a presence at Ghana ’s Golden Jubilee Anniversary. We are fully aware that our innocent children and dedicated security personnel have had to undergo days of strenuous rehearsals for the Ghana@50 Parade. While we salute them, we hasten to admit that mere salutation is not enough. We must show a physical presence as our recognition of their patriotic efforts; we should be there to re-ignite their optimism and aspirations for the future. The National Democratic Congress is Ghana’s government-in-waiting, very ready to wrestle power from the NPP come December 2008 in order to pursue, with vigour, its agenda—a social democratic agenda that does not tolerate disunity, distrust, disrespect, discrimination, exploitation, hatred, acrimony, official corruption, petty recriminations, vain vengeance, fascist political intrigues and subterfuges.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:
The fifth consideration that compels the NDC to participate in the Golden Jubilee Parade of 6th March 2007 relates to the high respect it needs to accord the invited heads of states, representatives of diplomatic missions as well as representatives of multilateral and bilateral institutions with whom Ghana has had long-standing and fruitful relations.
The NDC is also very conscious of the role it played, while in power, in getting an illustrious son of Ghana , His Exellency Kofi Annan to the prestigious post of the Secretary General of the United Nations. We respect the immediate past Secretary General of the UN; we are very proud of his distinguished international career. As a result, the NDC does not see how such a great man—respected all over the world—should be embarrassed by its non-participation in a Ceremony where all eyes will be on him.
The NDC however calls the attention of the international community and media to the fact that all is not well in Ghana . We request that they reciprocate our esteemed regard for them by turning their searchlight more sharply on Ghana in order to come to know exactly what is happening behind the scenes in the realm of our so-called democratic governance.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press:
Until today, the NDC has kept the nation guessing about its decision to participate or not participate in the activities organized for 50th Anniversary Celebrations. We have done so, my brothers and sisters, because we have been most concerned about, and indeed inflamed by some unfortunate developments, including NPP official pronouncements and actions since preparatory steps were initiated for the planning and execution of the Ghana @50 Celebrations.
1. First, the NDC was not invited to participate in the work of Anniversary’s Planning Committee. Over time, the NPP’s top spokespersons, including Dr. Wireko Brobbey and more recently Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani stated over and over again that the planning of the anniversary was entirely the work of the government and that there was no where in the world where political parties were invited to participate in planning a national anniversary. To them, there is one political party in government at any particular point in time and so any opposition party that insists on its involvement in government business is simply revealing its motivation to co-share in the executive work of government. These preposterous pronouncements betray complete a lack of understanding of the notion of good governance as underpinned by the principle of transparency in the workings of multiparty democracy. We believe that this attitude was meant to exclude other stakeholders from scrutinizing the work of the Ghana@50 Secretariat and thus render its operations non-transparent to facilitate the appropriation of the $20 million dollars and additional cedi donations for private benefit.