Chief Executive Officer of
the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distribution Company (CBOD) Senyo Hosi has waded into
the controversy over who are really the true founders of the country and the 4th August date
set aside to celebrate founders’
He
argues that Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah is not the only founder of Ghana and as
well disagrees with the 4th August date to
celebrate founders.
“Kwame
Nkrumah is not the only founder of Ghana; he is our first Ghanaian leader of
Government business and elected President. He inspired our independence at the
time we had it, but it was the accumulation of work and sacrifice started and
inspired by others before him including, but not exclusive to, the UGCC. He is nonetheless
a hero and the symbol or face of our independence.
The use
of 4th August (The UGCC birthday) to commemorate Founders’ Day, is wrong as the
UGCC is not the first structured grouping to have commenced the pursuit of
independence. It started with the Aborigines Rights Protection Society”, he
stated an article sighted by GlobaltipsGH.com.
Read
the full text below;
Nkrumah
not the only founder of Ghana; UGCC’s 4th August date also not accurate
For
starters, neither the UGCC nor the CPP symbolise our first organised pursuit of
the freedoms and independence of the citizens of what we call Ghana today. It
is unfortunate that citizens today continue feasting on the divisive
disagreements and egoistic wars between our freedom fighters. We should rather
be rallying around the common good they stood for. They all sought the freedom
of the citizenry and sacrificed their skills, freedoms and resources to realise
the aspiration of an independent Ghana. They all deserve to be celebrated.
Their
unhealthy and egoistic drawbacks that inspired deep bitterness and malevolent
acts against each other and ultimately the very State they claimed to love,
should rather be learnings for citizens today and not steroids for us to pursue
a paralysing divisiveness. None of that bitterness made us better as a people
or country.
The
Gold Coast Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society (ARPS) was our first
structured grouping to set the stage for our pursuit of independence. Formed in
1897, it was the main political organisation that organised and sustained
opposition against the colonial government. The ARPS was founded by traditional
leaders and the educated elite such as J.W. de Graft-Johnson, Jacob Wilson Sey,
J. P. Brown, J. E. Casely Hayford, and John Mensah Sarbah. They fought in Ghana
and in the UK to prevent the wholesale expropriation of Ghanaian lands by
European entrepreneurs or officials. The ARPS went on to campaign against the
exclusion of qualified Africans from the colonial administration. Their
interventions inspired the return of many educated Ghanaians to the homeland to
pursue our independence. After the ARPS, various organisations (like the
National Congress of British West Africa) were formed championing greater
autonomy and political participation by the citizens.
The
role of the UGCC and the CPP is too told and needs no further emphasis. Both
mobilised for independence with different views to time and style. Either way,
each contributed to what we have today. The 1948 riots and the Watson
Commission, which recommended the change in the constitution paved the way for
both parties to partake in elections, leading to Kwame Nkrumah’s election as
Leader of Government business in 1951 and eventually Ghana’s first President.
The riots marked the beginning of the end of the independence struggle and saw
all members of the Big Six arrested.
Source: GlobaltipsGh.com
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