CPP holds justice protest
Members of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) last Tuesday turned up at the Obra Spot of the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra to demand the return of a number of properties seized from the party after the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President.
Advertisement
Organised by the youth wing of the party, the event was also to protest the harsh economic conditions and the unstable power supply facing the country.
The protestors claimed properties, including the former Ministry of Information building in Accra, current Eastern and Ashanti regional offices of the Ghana Education Service, the Brong Ahafo Regional Police Command, Birth and Death Registry of the Central Region, must be returned to the party.
By 9 a.m., members of the party began to congregate at the Obra Spot. An attempt to march to the Information Ministry to continue the picket was stopped by the police, who insisted it was not part of the agreement reached with organisers.
The event formed part of activities marking the 49th anniversary celebration of the overthrow of President Nkrumah, at a time he was toppled while on an international assignment in Vietnam.
Organised by the Youth Wing of the CPP, the event attracted notable personalities, including the 2012 Vice-Presidential candidate of the party, Nana Akosua Frimpongmaa; Madam Lucy Anin, a Member of Parliament in the First Republic, and some members of the council of elders of the party in attendance.
Clad in white shirts with the slogan: “Justice for Ghana,” the protestors also carried banners and placards with inscriptions such as “Return all CPP assets now”; “CPP is for Ghana”; “NDC/NPP are failures”; and “We want justice and fairness.”
Dr Nkrumah was overthrown through a collaborative effort of the military led by Lt General E.K. Kotoka and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr J.W.K Harley with the tacit support of Western powers.
Other Trending Stories
Immediately after he was deposed, several properties in the name of the party were seized by the junta alongside the banning of the party’s name. Nkrumah remained in exile until his death in 1972.
While Nkrumah’s critics insisted that he had become a dictator and was running the nation aground with laws including the Preventive Detention Act and the one-party state, his followers maintained that he was a visionary leader whose overthrow had affected the country’s development till today.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, Deputy Youth Organiser of the party, Ernesto Yeboah, said the protest was to call for justice for all Ghanaians and for the CPP in particular.
“Today marks the 49th year of the illegal overthrow of the Nkrumah-led CPP government. It was a day we began to move backwards. Ever since his overthrow, we have never seen progress in any aspect of our lives.”
Nkrumah and distorted history?
According to him, immediately after the overthrow of Nkrumah, the military regime embarked on a deliberate campaign to destroy everything associated with Nkrumah, in addition to human right abuses.
“Personal properties of individuals were seized simply because they were perceived to be members of the CPP. In the history of this country, it is only the property of the CPP that was seized by the state.”
He said over the years, there had been a deliberate attempt to distort the country’s history in a manner that painted Nkrumah as a dictator while in reality he acted in the interest of the people.
“If you open our textbooks, they claim Nkrumah introduced the one-party state when in fact, it was the people who voted to have a one party state,” he said.
He called on Amnesty International and the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to help re-examine Ghana’s democracy especially when Nkrumah’s name remained criminalised in the country’s law books.
He referred to the National Liberation Council Decree (NLCD) as a law recognised by the 1992 Constitution, which is yet to be repealed and which views Nkrumah as a criminal.
“What we are practising here is not democracy but hypocrisy. Where in the world do you confiscate a party’s properties and expect it to participate fully in the democratic process?” he asked.
Ghana’s current energy crisis did not escape Mr Yeboah attention. According to him, it had a lot to do with Nkrumah’s truncated dreams for the country.
Advertisement
Conspicuously missing at the event were the National Chairperson of the party, Ms Samia Nkrumah, and Mr Ivor Greenstreet, the General Secretary of the party, who were said to be in the United States on a party assignment.