A public lecture has been held at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to commemorate the 2th anniversary of Baffour Osei Akoto, a traditional and political colossus in post independent Ghana, with a call on Ghanaian youth to shun corruption and fight the act relentlessly.
Ghanaian youth have also been charged to protect the rights of the weak and speak for the vulnerable. They have equally been urged to be bold to defend forever the powers of freedom and rights.
They have been admonished to be bold to stand for what is right and must cherish the freedom and protect it with all their zeal they can muster.
The call was made by the Dean of Faculty of Law of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr Ernest Owusu-Dapaah, who delivered the 20th anniversary lecture.
The late Baffour Osei-Akoto ,who served three Ashanti Kings -Nana Agyemang Prempeh II, Nana Opoku Ware II and Otumfuo Osei Tutu II as their linguist died at the age of 98 in 2002.
The event brought together Ghanaians from all walks of life including from academia, politicians and traditional leaders amongst others.
Owusu-Dapaah,quoting a Supreme Court Justice, Yoni Kulendi, drummed home his message: “We must seek help for the deprived; must shun corrupt people and fight their misdeeds where ever they are and where they are situated.”
He eulogised Baffour Osei-Akoto, underscoring that he fought for poor cocoa farmers after the Nkrumah government failed to honour its promise to cocoa farmers and fought against tyrannical government.
According to him, Baffour Akoto was one of the few courageous and patriotic individuals who spoke against the one-party system introduced by Kwame Nkrumah adding that in 1959, he and seven others were arrested and detained without trial under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) of 1958.
Dr Owusu-Dapaah hailed Baffour Osei Akoto as a traditional and political colossus, who stood against the PDA introduced by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, a crusade he noted, led to the multi-party system the state of Ghana is enjoying and the respect for human rights.
“The detention of Baffour Osei Akoto and others, brought to the fore, the impotence of the Supreme Court being a bastion for upholding human rights under the 1960 constitution,” he said,adding “A landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the well-known case –Re-Akoto, the case about Baffour Akoto challenging the constitutionality of his arrest, propriety of his detention under the Habeas Copus Act in 1960”, is still there for everybody to read.
According to him, “I agree with people who have made a call recently on the state to name Kumasi International Airport after Baffour Osei-Akoto.
The contribution of Baffour Osei-Akoto as a freedom activist and during the post regime of human rights and modern Ghana cannot be properly appreciated without a panoramic of the current architecture of our modern democracy.”
Nana Mensah Bonsu, the Chief of Asakya,who chaired the occasion, described Baffour as a politician who championed the federal government system against a unitary state.
However, he disclosed that the late Osei-Akoto was detained for four years, owing to criticism against the then government.
In a related development, the Baffour Osei-Akoto Foundation (BAF) was launched over the weekend at the Centre For National Culture in Kumasi, to protect and preserve the legacies of the senior Ashanti linguist and a patriot.
In a message which was delivered on behalf of the Asantehene by the occupant of the silver stool- Mamponghene, Dasabre Nana Osei Bonsu II, noted that late Baffour Osei-Akoto started many of the political adventures of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under the then National Liberation Movement (NLM).
Osei Bonsu II told the gathering that the late linguist of Asantehene joined hands with others to champion the course of NLM, which has turned to NPP now.
