President John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaians at home and abroad to unite behind the vision of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in a message marking Founder’s Day. He issued the message on Monday, 21 September 2026, as the country observed the 117th anniversary of the birth of its first President.
The President made national unity the condition for completing what Nkrumah began, arguing that the fight for political independence must now give way to the pursuit of economic freedom and social justice.
He tied that pursuit directly to his government’s Resetting Ghana agenda, turning a day of remembrance into a call for shared civic commitment. President Mahama described the day as an opportunity for Ghanaians to pause and honour what he called the immortal legacy of the nation’s founder.
He placed Nkrumah’s vision at the heart of the country’s international standing. “He was a visionary whose relentless pursuit of liberty, Pan-African unity, and self-reliance placed Ghana as a beacon of hope on the global stage,” he wrote.
The President singled out Nkrumah’s declaration that “the black man is capable of managing his own affairs,” describing it as the bedrock of national pride. The line, delivered at independence in 1957, remains among the most cited in Ghanaian public life and is a staple of commemorations on this date.
A Call For Unity Behind Nkrumah’s Vision
The central message of the statement looked forward rather than back. “I remind every Ghanaian at home and in the diaspora that the work of nation-building is not complete,” President Mahama wrote.
He followed that with an explicit charge to citizens. “I charge us all to rise above division, embrace selfless patriotism, and work tirelessly toward economic freedom and social justice.”
By naming the diaspora alongside citizens at home, the President extended the appeal beyond national borders, consistent with the Pan-African outlook he attributed to Nkrumah and with his government’s efforts to draw overseas Ghanaians into national development.
From Political Independence To Economic Freedom
The message drew a direct line between Nkrumah’s era and the present. “Just as Nkrumah fought for our political independence, we have a collective duty today to build a prosperous, equitable, and resilient Ghana.”
The comparison carries a familiar argument in Ghanaian political discourse: that independence in 1957 resolved the question of sovereignty but left the question of economic self-determination open.
President Mahama connected that unfinished business to his administration’s programme, asking Ghanaians to draw strength from Nkrumah’s vision and contribute in their own way to attaining the Resetting Ghana agenda. The framing presents the government’s reform programme as a continuation of the founding project rather than a partisan initiative.
A Holiday Restored
This year’s observance carries additional weight because the status of the day itself has been contested. In 2019, the Akufo-Addo administration amended the Public Holidays Act to make 4 August Founders’ Day, recognising the wider group of nationalists behind the independence struggle, and redesignated 21 September as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.
The change divided opinion sharply along political lines, with the then Minority walking out of Parliament over the amendment and the Convention People’s Party accusing the government of distorting history.
President Mahama reversed that decision through the passage of the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Act, restoring 21 September as Founder’s Day. The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park welcomed the move and urged government and Parliament to entrench the holiday firmly in law to protect it from future political revision.
A Message From New York
The President’s tribute coincides with his presence in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he is due to host a high-level event on the Accra Reset on the same day.
That initiative argues for development built on trade and investment rather than aid, an argument that sits naturally beside the self-reliance President Mahama credited to Nkrumah.
Later in the week, he is also scheduled to host an event on reparatory justice and the return of cultural property, a cause with deep roots in the Pan-African tradition Nkrumah championed.
The appeal for unity carries evident tension on a day whose very name the two main parties have fought over. How far the message lands will depend less on the tribute itself than on whether the Resetting Ghana agenda it invokes can command support across that divide, and on whether the holiday finally settles into law rather than shifting with each change of government.
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