Feature: If Baffour Osei Akoto was a Terrorist, then what about Nkrumah?

Part Two And All About The Bloodshed And Institutionalised Terrorism

When the whole of Ashanti (which comprised, today’s Ashanti, Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions) went celebrating the National Liberation Movement (NLM) for the course it had taken, Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP) was not amused at all and did all it could to quench that patriotic fire.

At this time, there was peace in Kumasi even in the midst of heated arguments as to who was right and who was wrong. The NLM felt the only way possible for rule of law and justice to take root in Ghana, was to have a federal state. The nearest word to federalism in the Twi language was “mate meho,” which can translate to mean“we go separate ways.” This was twisted by the anti-NLM to mean breaking away from the union, in other words, the NLM was calling for secession.

Such were the words of educated fools, from uneducated schools who would under-utilize the little classroom knowledge they had acquired and make manifest their undercover illiteracy, because no where did Baffour Osei Akoto or any member of the NLM ever speak about secession.

Majority of the people of the Ashanti region in 1954 were behind the NLM and had hoped that all the peoples of the then Gold Coast, would understand the party’s effort to liberate Ghana, from what CPP minister P.K.K. Quaidoo would later advise Ghanaians against Nkrumah’s neo-colonialism.

There were people in the region who supported the government, and these were CPP members. Naturally heated arguments for and against were common, just like how rival football fans would argue about which team was the best. This friendly fires among “siblings” were never meant to bring in any bloodshed, but, here unfortunately, it did.

During one such argument the CPP Ashanti Regional Propaganda Secretary, Twumasi-Ankrah, stabbed and killed E.Y. Baffo, an NLM Executive Officer.

Today, the Nkrumaists and pro-socialists would always mention names of CPP members who were allegedly tortured or killed by unknown persons, but will never mention Twumasi-Ankrah as the originator of the violence.

It is very obvious that socialists in this country live according to their genetic make-up, that is to always lie about others and cover the truth about themselves.

After the CPP’s killing of NLM’s E.Y. Baffo in cold-blood, all people in the region who supported the NLM felt unsafe and returned violence for violence. If the CPP had not drawn first blood, there would have been no violence in Kumasi.

But who could have authorised the killing of NLM supporters? During that era, every move by the CPP was authorised from the top and the top was Kwame Nkrumah. It is obvious that Twumasi-Ankrah would not have killed E.Y. Baffo, had instructions not come from Nkrumah through CPP head office.Since that could have been, the suggested way, to put fear into the members of the NLM.

What was intended to put fear in the people of Kumasi, rather backfired as the people paid violence for violence. Of course, many innocent people died and they were from both sides, so the Nkrumaists should stop this nonsensical cry that it was only their members who suffered casualties.

Ghanaians should be aware that during this violence, government ordered troops to Kumasi to quell the disturbances and who would these state armed personnel report to when they get to the regional capital? Certainly, not members of the NLM, or the traditional leadership, but the CPP and its government officials. And who would they be instructed to attack? Certainly, it would be members of the NLM.

This is what is called institutionalised terrorism and the head of any of such institutionalised terrorists is always the head of state. So, Nkrumah ordered the forces to go after innocent people, capture or even killed them.

Baffour Osei Akoto was a principled peace-loving man who wanted justice and fair-play for all. Nkrumah was just the opposite, and under him, the national motto, “Freedom and Justice,” rather denied Ghanaians their freedom and justice, and got them thrown into jail, without trial for just airing their views on national issues.

So, between Baffour Osei Akoto and Nkrumah, who was a terrorist?

Baffour Osei Akoto, a direct descendant of Asantehene Osei Bonsu, was a traditional ruler who in 1935, was appointed the chief linguist of the Asante-kingship by Nana Sir Agyeman Prempeh II, a position he held for 68 years. He always cared for his people.So, when they were dissatisfied in Nkrumah’s policies, he organized disgruntled members of the CPP to form a new political party called the National Liberation Movement (NLM).

Baffour Osei Akoto was a man who wished the best for all peoples and would never allow conflicts and bloodshed to be used as ways to resolve issues. He was a man of peace and all Nkrumaists must thank God for a person like Baffour Osei Akoto for gathering disgruntled members of the CPP and grouping them together under the NLM. If these members had remained in the CPP, they could have brought the party down through internal conflicts.

Members of the Ashanti region CPP, who defected to form NLM, were not the first members of the CPP who defected because of Nkrumah’s ways of dictatorship and totalitarianism. The list included, Ashie Nikoi, Kwesi Lamptey, Dzenkle Dzewu and H. Nyemitei who defected from the CPP in 1952, to join J.B. Danquah in the Ghana Congress Party. Dzenkle Dzewu was among the founding fathers of the CPP.

Baffour Osei Akoto is classified as a terrorist because he only made peaceful attempts to get his peoples out of Nkrumah’s bad treatments.

Nkrumah spearheaded the Positive Action, even though he was afraid to launch it on January 8, 1950, had not been Alfred Pobee Biney. The Positive Action resulted in the torturing and death of innocent Ghanaians and even the Paramount Chief of Essikado, Nana Kobina Nketsia IV, was beaten up until he fell into coma and was thrown to jail.

If Baffour Osei Akoto could start a process to liberate his people and that resulted in casualties and so he should be considered a terrorist, then what about Nkrumah, who started by doing what Baffour Akoto did, and that also resulted in casualties?

Kwame Nkrumah went on to do worse, after he secured the leadership position in the country. As head of state, he implemented laws which terrorised the citizens.

He brought about the Preventive Detention Act (PDA) which put into jail without trial anyone who was alleged to have done or said something against government.

K.A. Gbedemah, described the PDA to be an inhuman and vicious law, which was capable of inordinate abuse. Ghanaians lived in terror and in fear of the PDA.

Then came the False Report Bill, which also put into jail without trial anyone who said something bad about the government.

Today, the Nkrumaists and socialists in the country can get up and say anything bad about the government and the president and walk freely. Can they come out to condemn Nkrumah for the PDA and the FRB? If they can’t then, they should shut up and accept whatever is going on in this country.

Nkrumah’s acts of terrorism went further to break-up homes and families. He formed the Young Pioneer Movement and trained these underaged tobetray their own parents as it was done in communist countries.

Children, who overheard their parents making bad comments about the government and the president, would report them and have them jailed under PDA. This is an example of terrorist acts, which broke up the family from within.

The great Baffour Osei Akoto need to be immortalised and one of the ways to do so is by renaming a national icon after him. Baffour Osei Akoto was the hero to Asantes in particular and Ghanaians in general. He sacrificed himself in order to save the kingdom of Asanteman and so what is wrong if a national icon is named after him?

Asanteman has lots of heroes who stood up against mighty forces for the sake of Asanteman in particular and Ghana in general. Asanteman is one of the African kingdoms and empires acknowledged and respected world wide and yet in Ghana, there is no significant national icon, named after any of the numerous Asante heroes.

With all the harm Nkrumah did to Asantes, Rawlings came out to smack them in the face, by renaming University of Science and Technology after Nkrumah. He did not see it fit to rename University of Ghana after J.B. Danquah, who fought for the university college to be established here in the then Gold Coast.

Accra International Airport was renamed Kotoka International Airport in 1969, after General Emmanuel Kwesi Kotoka, one of the architects who toppled Nkrumah and the CPP in 1966. The Nkrumaists, who loathed Kotoka so much, could not have his name removed from the airport. After the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, the socialists ruled Ghana for twenty-eight continuous years from 1972 to 2000, but they never had the courage to change the name of the airport, even though, they still hate Kotoka and never want him mentioned in this country.

Baffour Osei Akoto was a true patriot of this country who desired peaceful solutions to problems. Nkrumah introduced institutionalised terrorism and threw people who did not side with him intoprison, with many dying there. There were no fewer than 1,377 political prisoners in prisons in Ghana when Nkrumah was overthrown in February 1966, by the National Liberation Council.

Most Ghanaians will agree that it is very worthwhile to rename the Kumasi International Airport to Baffour Osei Akoto International Airport.

Baffour Osei Akoto did not kill a single soul. His proposal which was upheld by majority of Ashantis would have turned Ghana into a strong federal state with each region working for its best in particular and the country in general. Yet, Nkrumah introduced bloodshed into that peaceful debate by mandating Twumasi-Ankrah to kill E.Y. Baffo who was once a CPP activist.

So, if Baffour Osei Akoto was a terrorist, then what was Nkrumah, who introduced institutionalised terrorism in Ghana?

Hon. Daniel Dugan