The former Speaker of Parliament, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, has averted the minds of the public to the genesis of certain rights and privileges enjoyed by the citizens today, which hitherto did not exist.
He mentioned decentralisation, democracy, human rights, right to a fair trial, and freedom of speech among many others, which were alien to Ghanaians until the struggles of Baffour Osei Akoto and his defense counsel, Joseph Kwame Kyeretwei Boakye Danquah, to liberate the people.
“When we wake up in the morning, and we invoke our liberties, and we say we are proud people, [and] that human beings are not animals, two heads are better than one, you say, and I say, we should remember that all these did not come on a silver platter. Men like Baffour Osei Akoto fought for these rights,” he stated.
According to him, Baffour Osei Akoto – the then Chief Linguist of Ashanti – and others suffered for these rights and died in the hands of Ghana’s first elected President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and, for that matter, they should be held in high esteem.
The former Speaker made the statement while giving a keynote address in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the death of Baffour Osei Akote in Accra last Wednesday.
The week-long anniversary celebration was opened with a launch of a book: “A Royal Patriot and making of Ghana.”
The late Osei Akoto, father of the current Food and Agriculture Minister, was part of the three delegations from the Ashanti Kingdom at the time to sign documents to make Ashantis part and parcel of the colonial Gold Coast.
However, he became a critic of the Nkrumah ‘dictatorship’ regime and, as a result, was jailed for speaking the truth to power.
Nonetheless, Prof Oquaye said the late Osei Akoto did not take advantage of the people to amass wealth for himself, and “died not as a very rich or super rich politician, but lived and died for principles.”
Stephen Ntim, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), on his part, stressed why lessons must be learnt from the exemplary life lived by Baffour Osei Akoto and other forebears of the party.
“During their time in the pre and immediate post-independent era, the political situation in Ghana was quite stormy. Those days, one could be cast into prison without knowing their offense, courtesy of the notorious PDA (Preventive Detection Act).
“People like Baffour Akoto could have remained comfortably in their homes and the palace especially, and let the politicians do their so-called dirty politics. He instead chose the more challenging option of helping to salvage the situation to secure true democracy for the nation,” he added.
He added that the philosophy and principles that Osei Akoto, J.B. Dankwah, S. B. Dombo, K. A. Busia, and several others of the NPP tradition espoused had now become the foundation of a democratic society, which had been deepened by the tremendous leadership of former president John A. Kuffuor and being continued by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Mr. Ntim was hopeful that the memory of Baffour Akoto should be a lighthouse that beckons the public to navigate towards patriotism for national development.
He advises by saying “as we pay homage to Baffour Akoto today. The man whose vision, charisma, respect, and devotion, the great brains from all walks of life were assembled to give birth to the UP (United Party) tradition, which has today given birth to the New Patriotic Party.
Let us also contemplate what we can also do to propel the progress of our dear Country and dear generation.”
