Nkrumah not sole founder of Ghana - Gabby Otchere-Darko
A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has challenged the notion that Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was the sole founder of Ghana, arguing that the country's independence was the result of collective efforts by various leaders.
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In a recent interview on Channel One TV, Mr. Otchere-Darko acknowledged Nkrumah's significant role in Ghana's journey to independence but emphasized that he was not the only architect of the nation's freedom.
He pointed to the contributions of J.B. Danquah, Paa Grant, and other members of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) as instrumental in the independence movement that predated Nkrumah's involvement.
“You can’t take it from Nkrumah, he knew how to charge, organise and mobilise people. But it does not make him the Founder. He was one of many. The struggles started even before the J.B. Danquahs, and Paa Grants, so I don’t know why we want to give him the credit as the founder.
“Even Nkrumah after all the work he did, what name did he settle on? Ghana, who proposed the name? It wasn’t him. It’s a tiring argument, I’m not interested in it,” the private legal practitioner asserted.
He further argued that even Nkrumah himself did not choose the name "Ghana," a point often overlooked in discussions about the country's founding.
“If people want to believe that Nkrumah was the only person who founded Ghana, please let them believe it. And those of us who don’t believe so, and still will give Nkrumah his credit, his due, for being a mobiliser and a driver who agitated the minds, perhaps more than the others because of his populist stance.
“Because of his connectivity with the people, we give him that credit, but I will not say that Nkrumah founded Ghana,” Mr Otchere-Darko pointed out.
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Mr. Otchere-Darko's remarks follow President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's 2024 Founders' Day speech on August 3, in which the president also rejected the idea that Ghana was founded by a single individual. The president's comments have sparked a broader debate among Ghanaians about the true origins of the country's independence.