The United Party
In the 1956 Parliament, the CPP had 71 seats and a 33-seat majority of the 104 seats in the House. On the Opposition side, the Northern Peoples Party (NPP) had 15 seats, the National Liberation Movement (NLM) had 12, Togoland Congress had 2, Independent had 2, Muslim Association Party (MAP) had 1 and the Federation of Youth Organisation also had 1 seat.
The Minority, decided to make the leader of the NLM, Dr. K.A. Busia, the Minority leader, even though his NLM had less seats than S.D. Dombo’s NPP. This was based on the fact the NLM had more votes coming to Parliament, than any other opposition party, with 145,657 total votes or 49% of the total of 299,116 votes for the opposition parties. This was the reason, the opposition made Busia the minority leader with S.D. Dombo the deputy minority leader.
With the formation of the United Party, the status quo remained the same.
Dr. K.A. Busia spelt out the mission and objectives of the UP. It was to lay emphasis on civil liberties and personal freedom, on the protection of the law and courts as the right of every individual.
The party stood against illegal and arbitrary action of government and its agents. It stood for right to free speech, association and movement and on the right of the people to freely choose their own government through free and honest elections.
The UP believed that national planning, private enterprise and political freedom could and must work together. To the party, planning should not mean discriminate, excessive and rigid central control but should aim primarily at the fair distribution of wealth and produce of the nation among all citizens and narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor. The opposite was what was pertaining under the CPP government.
Dr. J.B. Danquah fully endorsed the objectives of the UP as articulated by Dr. K.A. Busia. He added that the mission of the UP was to liberate the energies of the people for the growth of a property-owning democracy in a land with right, freedom and justices as the principle to which government and the laws; in order specifically to enrich the life, property and liberty of each and every citizen.
The manifesto of the United Party included: to build on the foundation of Ghana’s tradition and culture, a true parliamentary democracy; that the constitution as law established was upheld and strictly adhered to; to preserve by deeds and words, the fundamental rights and liberties of every individual; to uphold and maintain the institution of chieftaincy and the rights of the people to their land and to ensure that the chiefs play a democratic and effective part in the development of Ghana; to ensure equal opportunity for all to develop their talents; to develop the productive use of the country’s resources; to encourage investment of capital by creating confidence at home and abroad through stable and efficient administration based on government by persuasion; to maintain an efficient and independent civil service free from interference and threats of victimisation and to maintain the independence of the judiciary, uphold the rule of law based on reason and natural justice and ensure that everyone is equal before the law.
These and many more were what the UP would have wanted Ghana to be, but unfortunately that could not be. Nkrumah had the opposite ideas which he imposed on Ghanaians.
Certainly, he must always be acknowledged and applauded for the good things he did for Ghana and Africa. But unfortunately, his wrong side did a lot of harm for the new nation which violated the rights and liberties of Ghanaians.
Nkrumah did a lot of things to strengthen his own position and that of his government as he tried to remove all obstacles that stood in his way.
He came out with draconian laws that protected him but violated the rights of all Ghanaians including traditional leaders, his own ministers and members of parliament.
There were the Preventive Detention Act (1958) which allowed the executive to arrest and detain individuals without trial if their actions were deemed harmful to the state; the False Report Act (1959), which sent anyone straight to jail based on allegations of making false statements against government; there was the Chiefs (Recognition) Act (1959) which gave Nkrumah the sole right to enstool/enskinned or remove chiefs from the stool and skin without any recourse to customary laws and practices.
There was also the National Assembly (Disqualification) Act (1959), which removed from the House, MPs who disagreed with Nkrumah. First, the PDA would put them to jail and then they get removed from Parliament for failing to do business in the House.
Many opposition MPs and even notably the CPP MP and Minister of Social Welfare, Hon. P.K.K. Quaidoo fell victim to this inhumanity. As a Catholic, he disagreed with the immortalisation of Nkrumah and made a speech against that on the floor of Parliament on May 22, 1960.He was immediately dismissed from government and the House and before nightfall he was arrested and sent straight to jail.
The year 1963 recorded the highest number of people detained by Nkrumah. 586 people were put behind bars without trial, for either expressing diverse opinions or were just lied upon.
There was also the Deportation Act (1957), which made sure that any person of foreign nationality who was perceived to support any opposition party was deported. It must be noted here, that a lot of neighbouring African nationals were deported irrespective of their health status or age. In 1958, 105-year-old Kwadjo Aforna was being deported to Togo when he collapsed and had to be hospitalised in the Keta Hospital, where he died.
Nkrumah spread his tentacles across board to ensure complete loyalty to him.He indoctrinated even children, with his Young Pioneer Movement, which was a hero-worshiping movement.The children were recruited to spy on their teachers and parents. And many were cases of parents being sent to jail because they made harmless remarks like “now-a-days things are hard,” which their children took as attacking Nkrumah and went ahead to report them.
Prof. Agyemang Badu Akosa was on social media the other day, trumpeting the values of the Young Pioneer Movement. What he cleverly hid from Ghanaians is the ungodly indoctrination of the children.
For example, children are gathered under trees and told to close their eyes and pray to God for sweets. When nothing happens, they are then asked to do same but this time to pray to Nkrumah. Then sweets are rained down on them by some CPP adults hiding in the branches. The children then concluded that Nkrumah was mightier than God.
On August 14, 1962, the Anglican Bishop Richard Roseveare, publicly opposed what he saw as the “godlessness” of the Young Pioneer Movement, its teachings and phrases and the slogans used by some of its supporters, which included deploring statements like “Africa has her own god and Nkrumah is his Jesus”.
The bishop was given a nine-hour deportation order to pack out of Ghana.
The Holy Catholic Church in Ghana instilled the love and fear of God in children in its schools by forming the Catholic Youth Organisation (CYO), which brought up the young ones in the Lord.
In 1958, in his desire to weaken the opposition by any means possible, Nkrumah invited S.D. Dombo and Mumuni Bawumia of the UP and offered them juicy promises if they defect to the CPP. Dombo declined but Bawumia accepted the offer and became a CPP member.
In June 1958, Mumuni Bawumia made a statement to the police that the French government had given £1.0 million to the Opposition leader, Dr. K.A. Busia to topple the Nkrumah regime. Upon tip-off that his life was in danger, Busia fled into exile.
Nkrumah’s increased pressure on the United Party, and among others the CPP propaganda attributed the UP to the NLM. And so, to this day, Nkrumaists will portray the two parties as one and the same and spew lies.
Nkrumah who swore to uphold the 1960 Constitution of Ghana, which mandated a five-year term of office, rather succeeded to overthrow it with a referendum on January 31, 1964 and on February 1, 1964, Ghana became a one-party state.
The referendum itself was heavily rigged which resulted in amazing results of 2,773,920 ‘Yes’ votes against 2,412 ‘No’ votes across the country. And in all these not a single ‘No’ vote was cast in Ashanti region.
With this, the United Party ceased to exist. All its good intentions, which it would have implemented if it had won the 1965 General Election, were blown to the wind.
Parliament was reconstituted on June 9, 1965 when Nkrumah personally chose who should represent which constituency. In fact, the 1965 parliamentary election was an election where no single ballot was cast. Some of the MPs did not hail from or even know the constituencies they were assigned to.
(Ref: Nkrumah & the Chiefs – The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana 1951-1960 by Richard Rathborne (pp137, 142, 152 ); GHANA: Evolution and Change In the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries by Adu-Boahen (pp212, 219); Danquah-Busia Tradition In the Politics of Ghana by Kantinka K. Donkoh Fordwor (pp 81-89 ); GHANA: A Concise History From Pre-Colonial Times to the 20th Century by D.E.K Amenumey (pp 234, 237) GHANA’S INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE: The Unfinished Task by Barima Piesie Okyere Darko (pp 213)
Hon. Daniel Dugan
