One man can make a difference

I recently received this text message: "GHANA.....misplaced priorities, clueless leadership, bankrupt of 21st century ideas. Frankly...what has been celebrating five years of Atta Mills death, revisiting the birth of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and all the crap that gets mentioned got to do with sorting out the mess in which we find ourselves?"

It came from someone who is simply tired of our development merry go round. I understood the sentiment. The past week has been dominated by news of the UGCC; the political party that Kwame Nkrumah broke away from to form the great Convention People's Party (CPP). (At its peak, it was probably one of the largest political parties on the continent)

There have been several reports quoting our learned Speaker of Parliament as saying that President Nkrumah was not the sole founder of the independent Republic of Ghana. In his view, several other Ghanaian historical giants such as the doyen of Ghanaian politics,Dr J.B Danquah and other members of the "big six" played equally important roles and are also founders.

As you can imagine, this has led to intense debate; some more acrimonious than others. One of the finest contributions to this debate came from a brother by the name Ekow Nelson. The Daily Graphic published an article he wrote on Wednesday, August 9, in which he argued that "we can debate who started the struggle for independence but we can't dispute who achieved it".He adds: "Even if we accept the UGCC as the harbinger of the anti-colonial struggle, where in the world, or in our lives is conception equally or more important than birth?".

Making a difference

One man can make a difference. This doesn't mean any more than that. I know that once upon a time there were several men and women conspiring to free Ghana from what they considered a faltering third republic. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) was born. Who do we associate it with? Jerry John Rawlings.

You can read the full article on the Graphic News App

Subscribe Now!

{loadmodule mod_custom,Download Graphic News App}