Nkrumah And Churchill On A Podium
Some day, I knew “I was going to be in some kind of trouble.” But, would I be prepared for it? Let’s find out. Just exactly four weeks ago, I found myself writing and attempting to advise men and women, both younger but also older than me, what to do, if in politics, they needed advise, take recourse to a man named Winston Spencer Churchill, a man whom most of us, advanced in age, yet never met, nor heard him alive. He died on January, 24th, 1965.
Without doubt, I could re-assure interested readers that, not many have forgotten the encounter between me and half-a-dozen of University graduates at a spot in the centrum of “Oseikurom”, and to be exact, at “Aseda House”, eight years back. As it turned out, we happened to be waiting for a printer, who had escaped us, ‘and gone for lunch’.
I had adopted a habit, of asking people, if they were younger than me, about a man called “Osagyefuo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.” As usual, on this occasion, it turned out, not half of the dozen young men, had “a substantial clout” of the man, whom with others, (the big six), is acknowledged, as “The Founder of the Nation, our Nation.” Without saying it too loud, I inner-ly consoled myself, by thinking, “they would have known more about Kwame, had it been in Accra.”
I wasn’t too sure about that either. But, being as it were, all they knew was that, “Nkrumah was the man who took all Ghana’s money, and gave it to foreigners.” I tried, mixing ‘German and English’, to convince them, it was never that way, even if anybody told them what they seemed to know. “No way!” one of them yelled! They mentioned 7 Million Dollars to Yamiogo of Burkina Faso, and another 10 Million to Sekou Toure, of the Republic of Guinea. I made it easier for them, by adding, “East Africans, and Southern Africans studied here at our cost too, but it was all good for ‘THE YOUNG AFRICA.”
The best example was Robert Mugabe, “who took our woman in addition for a wife”. In the same vein, a lot of European countries gave Africans scholarships to study in their mist, from their tax-payers’ hard-won money. “Germany,” and I was living proof, standing in front of them. “That was paying the colonial debt”, one of them yelled. We all had a laugh, and I tried hard, to convince them, they had got it wrong, the way they saw it with Nkrumah. We parted, but, I was unhappy, they still thought Dr. Nkrumah had been light-headed with Ghana’s money.
A chunk of the youth in Ghana, who must look outside their country, for a job, even after acquiring sparkling certificates from the Universities, blame Dr. Nkrumah for it. One young lady, a graduate teacher, is convinced, Nkrumah could have turned Ghana into an Industrialized nation. Why didn’t he?
This is a question you and I as Ghanaians may ask not only Nkrumah’s Spirit, watching us, as we chat over it today, but we could all ask ourselves, “and why haven’t we industrialized, even 50 years, since he has been gone?”. And we have all heard the myriad of excuses, from political opponents: “Nkrumah had all the Cocoa, the Timber, the Bauxite, and all the Gold reserves.” The fault, in the Ghanaian situation, has been only in the neighbor’s court, not in our own, since Nkrumah has been gone.
To my article on Winston Churchill, the rejoinders have been many. The one whose answer I feel the “questionair” should pay attention to the answer thereof, is that, I do recognize Nkrumah’s role not only in Africa, but the world, which we can all be very proud of, but one thing is missing, which I can find in places like Germany, and Britain, (not to talk of Korea, and SINGAPORE. Out of ashes and ruins, they have built staunch economies and skyscrapers). The youth of Ghana, who did not meet Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and have unfortunately not read his books, (I don’t quite know why not), have such a big problem, and I am not sure, whether we the septuagenarians could be blamed for it),-one gargantuan task.
It is this: “You try and ask anybody who is young, just where he/she would like to spend the rest of their lives.” The few that may have got it from family-connections, who were not in Nkrumah’s camp when the big battles took place; and I mean T-junction, Flagstaff House, Arena, and finally Kulungugu, they all blame any attempt to remove Nkrumah on his stifling of the political situation in Ghana through “His one party-system, and his Preventive Detention Act, PDA”. For the opposition, Kwame had removed all avenues of fair political game.
Even so, the big attempt to kill him at Kulungugu in 1962 was not from the opposition, but from Kwame’s own group, who were fed-up with him. But, the accused, all from the CPP, where acquitted by the High Court, (or Supreme Court?). Winston Churchill was Prime Minister twice. He believed in Democratic processes. In Europe, Adolf Hitler failed, trying to take the world by Autocracy. Communism has failed after 74 years of trial in the Soviet Union.
Eastern Europe is free today, and so are most African Countries. China won’t stay Autocratic for long. My suggestion for anyone studying politics, to read Churchill, is simply, the thought that men want to be free!!!
Kofi Dankyi Beeko. e:mail-dankyikofi@yahoo.com
Short URL: http://thechronicle.com.gh/?p=51727
Good evening KDB,
i guess,hope and believe you are doing fine by HIS grace.Once again,you have come out with a topic worth discussing and this is the very first time that i disagree with you.I cherish, treasure and RESPECT your articles so very much but this one,i can not agree with you.
MY QUESTION IS,if NKRUMAH THE GREAT is not to be blamed,who else should take the blame? FACT is and still remains that he is the one and only HEAD OF GOVERNMENT/STATE who did not inherit any kind of national debt.
His government,inherited at least 200 million pounds,at a time one british pound gave any holder 3 us dollars.That means,OUR BELOVED GHANA,had 600 million us dollars!!!!!! Our population then was not even up to 5 million.
In less than 9 years after independence,GHANA was bankrupt. HOPEFULLY,you will not disagree but if you disagree you can verify from BANK OF GHANA or read THE GHANAIAN REVOLUTION.The author J.G.AMAMOO was NKRUMAH`S ambassador to international atomic energy commission and hungary,an insider in the CPP regime.I personnally,appreciate,respect and adore THE GREAT OSAGYEFO for projects like AKOSOMBO,TEMA HARBOUR AND TOWNSHIP,EXPANSION OF TAKORADI HARBOUR,CONSTRUCTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS THROUGH THE GHANA EDUCATION TRUST.
DOCTOR,what still beats my understanding is NKRUMÀH`S economic policies and the kind of AFRICAN LIBERATION POLICY he had.I personally believe that his ECONOMIC and AFRICAN LIBERATION POLICIES bankrupted our BELOVED GHANA!!!!!!
The numerous state owned industries he formed were seriously overstaffed,management of these organisations were not the least qualified but rather party members.Example,Mr.Stevens was a superb educationist,the first headmaster of Tarkwa secondary school.He was sent to Australia for a month course and thereafter appointed as the MD of the corned beef factory in upper region.Mr. stevens read latin at LEGON and had no training whatsoever in administration/ management.I wonder if the one month course he had in australia was enough to guarantee success at his new position.
DOCTOR,such was the kind of appointment culture that engulfed us as a new nation,sadly,regimes after regimes have maintained this bad appointment culture and this led to total collapse of the numerous state owned industries because,members of the various boards were unqualified cronies and so were management.THEY could not bring any profits to the state.
WHY AT ALL did the great OSAGYEFO prefered socialist economic policies to capitalist policies???? W H Y ???? OSAGYEFO lived and studied in the USA for a long time,he really knew the GREAT EFFECTS of capitalism.At least,that made it possible for a new nation like our BELOVED GHANA to lend from the KAISERS to finance AKOSOMBO.YET,NKRUMAH prefered socialist economic policies.
If the CPP regime had adopted capitalist policies,GHANA would have been miles ahead of other nations.Surprisingly,almost all african nations which gained independence after GHANA copied NKRUMAH`S socialist economic policy to a greater extent whereby the state played a major part or owned and controlled almost every economic activity with IVORY COAST AS AN EXCEPTION.
DOCTOR,i totally agree with the youth at ASEDA HOUSE on that afternoon.NKRUMAH squandered our finances,did not stir our INNOVATIVE MINDS THROUGH REWARDING CAPITALIST ECONOMIC POLICIES! AS you know,USA,GERMANY,JAPAN,CANADA,FRANCE,SINGAPORE,SOUTH KOREA,INDONESIA are what they are today because their governments adopted capitalist economic policies that are rewarding and it has led to economic success whilst USSR,ROMANIA,CHINA ,BULGARIA,HUNGARY,CUBA,YUGOSLAVIA were in serious poverty because of their socialist economic policies.The good thing about my simple reasoning here is,all these socialist states are enjoying massive economic successes after abandoning socialist economic policies.GHANA,our BELOVED nation would have been like CUBA if NKRUMAH stayed in power.I PERSONALLY BELIEVE THE HUMAN MIND IS HIGHLY INNOVATIVE and regimes must only create sound environment for it to exist.NKRUMAH and other african leaders believed otherwise and here we are in serious poverty with all the natural resources bestowed on us by the liebe gott. THE AFRCAN STORY IS VERY PATHETIC!! we have FAILED MISERABLY.we have proven to the world that we are INCORRIGIBLE DEVIATISTS. How sad.
DOCTOR,i humbly reccomend the following books to you:Mord am großen Fluß.Ein vierteljahrhundert afrikanische Unabhängigkeit. AUTHOR is PETER SCHOLL-LATOUR a renowned german journalist.
The second is WHY NATIONS FAIL.THE ORIGINS OF POWER,PROSPERITY AND POVERTY.AUTHORS ARE:DARON ACEMOGLU and JAMES ROBINSON.
ACEMOGLU is an economic proffessor at MIT and ROBINSON is a proffessor of government at Havard university and a world renowned -expert on latin america and africa.I have copies and i can lend you if you want to read them.FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME,I TOTALLY DISAGREE WITH YOU.we are where we are now mostly because of NKRUMAH`S bad econmic policies that wrecked our treasury.If he patiently introduced good capitalist policies,our DEAR NATION would have been something totally different from what we have today.This topic is broad.maybe we need to contnue in private.