Marking Founder’s Day – the way forward
Yesterday, September 21, was marked across the country as Founder’s Day to celebrate Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and the role played by the Big Six in Ghana’s independence struggle.
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Since its inception by the late President John Evans Atta Mills, however, the celebration of the day has been rather on a low key and many people have labelled it as a needless holiday on the country’s calendar.
Although all are in favour of recognising the immense sacrifices made by all the freedom fighters to ensure that Ghana freed itself from colonial rule, the challenge seems to be how to appropriately mark the day or recognise our forebears, so that it becomes more meaningful and impactful on the whole nation.
Leaders of some of the political parties who were part of a guest editorial team on the Daily Graphic shared varied opinions on how the day should be marked and we believe those opinions must not be discounted, moving forward.
The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, called for consensus, especially between the two major political parties, on the choice of the day itself because the NPP had reservations on the choice of the birthday of Dr Nkrumah as Founder’s Day and how political parties treated the heroes of the independence struggle.
For the acting General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Yaw Asani Tano, however, the Founder’s Day would lose its relevance if the leadership of the country failed to adopt measures that would improve the living standards of the citizens.
“The idea of Founder’s Day will be meaningless if the totality of Ghanaians are not liberated from the woes of unemployment, food insecurity, abject poverty, a weak educational system and a poor health delivery system. The day will lose its relevance if we continue to experience corrupt leadership and nepotism,” he said.
The Communications Director of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Mr Ernest Owusu Bempah, also called for Ghana’s history with regard to events leading up to independence to be re-written to reflect the true circumstances and also allow the nation to overcome divisions that had arisen because of the misinterpretation of events.
He said the persistent low-key celebration of the day was as a result of apathy on the part of a section of the population who felt alienated.
The Daily Graphic agrees with others who think that although Dr Nkrumah is widely acknowledged as having led the country to attain independence and did achieve great things for the country, the contributions of other patriots in the effort have to be recognised on such a day.
It has almost become a cliché that the country does not honour its heroes, but we must remember the popular saying that a country that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for.
Based on that, the Daily Graphic urges the government, which is the initiator of the Founder’s Day, to critically assess the marking of the day, taking cognisance of all the views expressed by people, in order to carve a better celebration and commemoration in subsequent years.
Yes, we must recognise our heroes, but we must do so in fairness, oneness and joy and, indeed, with meaning.
