Ghana marks Founder’s Day
Monday September 21 marks the Founders Day which has been set aside to honour the birthday of the Ghana’s founder and First President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
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It is a statutory public holiday observed throughout the country every September 21 and is marked with lectures, symposiums and other programmes to highlight his achievements and vision.
The day, which marks the 106th birthday of Dr Nkrumah, was originally instituted by the late President John Evans Atta Mills in 2010 to honour the memory of the first President, whose illustrious efforts won the political independence of Ghana from British rule in 1957.
Dr Nkrumah is inarguably one of the most celebrated sons of Ghana, not only in the country of his birth but across the continent and world over.
He was an active patron of the unification of the African continent in the firm belief that such a unification, would inure to the benefit of the African without any interference from those he called “white imperialists”.
He was born in the Nzema village of Nkroful in the Western Region of the then Gold Coast.
Education
After completing his basic education at the local Roman Catholic School, he went to the Achimota College where he trained as a teacher. He travelled to America after teaching for a while.
While teaching, he gained admission to the Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, USA, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1939. He obtained another bachelor’s degree in Sacred Theology in 1939.
In 1942, he was awarded a Master of Science in Education and a Master of Science in Philosophy. While lecturing in Political Science at the Lincoln University, he was elected President of the African Students Organisation of America.
His charisma, vision and desire to see Ghana industrialise and prosper, as well as to unite Africa into a strong, prosperous continent that could influence decisions in the international arena, were unmatched.
His association with well-known Marxists, such as Raya Dunayevskaya and Grace Lee Boggs, brought him to the attention of the American Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and by early 1945, he was under FBI surveillance.
In that same year, he left the US with the intention of studying at the London School of Economics.
Nationalist’s agitation
His meeting with George Padmore, a Trinidadian Pan-Africanist, in England got him involved in the organisation of the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester.
He later founded the West African National Secretariat to fight for an end to colonialism in Africa and was later elected vice-president of the West African Students Union (WASU).
Due to his strong radical and anti-colonial views, he never escaped the eyes of the British Special Branch.
In 1947, Nkrumah was invited by the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) to serve as its general secretary but disagreements on the way forward in the fight for self-government made him break away and he formed the Convention People's Party (CPP) on June 12, 1949.
He involved the youth, women and ordinary people in his party and travelled the length and breadth of the country to spread his message. Within a short period, the CPP had become the biggest political party in the then Gold Coast.
Incarceration
In late 1949, he made some proposals for constitutional amendment which were rejected, and on January 1, 1950 he called for 'positive action'. He was arrested and jailed for three years, but the peace and quiet the British colonial administration thought his incarceration would bring did not materialise.
Faced with local protests, the British organised elections in 1951, and although he was in prison, Nkrumah and his CPP won by a landslide, taking 34 out of the 38 seats. Consequently, the colonial administration had no choice but to release him. He was asked to form a government within a day of his release.
He formed a government and was given the title 'Leader of Government Business.'
In 1952, the Legislative Assembly elected him, by secret ballot, as Prime Minister after the constitution had been amended.
As Prime Minister, Nkrumah continued to agitate for independence and on March 6, 1957, the Gold Coast became independent with the new name 'Ghana.'