President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to keep Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of Pan-Africanism and African unity alive for as long as he holds office, and he accepts the risks that come with it.
He made the pledge while answering a question at an engagement with the Ghanaian community in Moscow, Russia, during his state visit for the Russia-Africa Summit.
President Mahama explained that Nkrumah’s dying prediction of many successors points to leaders like himself, and he recalled the fate of Patrice Lumumba as proof of the danger. He also argued that Ghana, unlike the powers that grew rich through colonisation, has nobody to colonise and must use its own resources to build prosperity.
“I believe in his vision and his philosophy of Pan-Africanism and African unity.”
President John Dramani Mahama
Nkrumah’s Prediction of Many Successors
When coups removed Nkrumah, and he went into exile, ill and dying, he stated that his opponents might have gotten rid of him but that many Kwame Nkrumahs would follow.
President Mahama reads that line as a reference to people like himself. His generation grew up inspired by Nkrumah, he noted, and he holds that the first President’s philosophy still deserves defending.
He tied the belief to his office. President Mahama committed that “as long as I remain president, that will continue to be my vision.”
Pan-Africanism Carries Real Risks
President Mahama did not play down the cost. The question put to him raised the dangers, and he agreed that Nkrumah suffered them. In the past, he explained, opponents of an African leader could engineer his ouster through a coup d’état or have him assassinated.
He pointed to Patrice Lumumba, whom enemies killed several months after he became president of Congo. The President insisted that such threats come with the job and that “those are risks we are prepared to accept.” He framed the acceptance as a matter of national interest.
A Voice Raised for Africa
President Mahama described his public stance as a deliberate act of courage. He speaks boldly for Africa because he believes in the concepts behind it, he stated, and he knows his words may make some listeners uncomfortable.
He answers that discomfort with a personal reason. He speaks on behalf of “myself, my children, and my children’s children,” because every generation must do its best to lift its country.
Colonial Wealth and Ghana’s Resources
The President grounded the argument in history. Many rich countries built their fortunes by exporting slave labour and extracting people’s work for nothing, he explained, and by colonising other lands and taking their cocoa, gold and minerals home.
“Today, who are you going to colonize? Who is Ghana going to colonize?” Ghana has nobody to colonise, President Mahama concluded, so it must use the resources God has blessed it with to create prosperity for its people. If that annoys anyone, he added, “I really don’t care.” He framed his duty in plain terms: “It is about the people I serve.”
He promised to keep acting on that principle for as long as he stays in office. He will do the right thing by Ghanaians, he stated, “not because of somebody else’s interest.”
Many Generations of Nkrumahs
President Mahama closed his answer with a compliment to the person who asked the question. He suggested that the questioner is another Nkrumah in the making, and he predicted that many generations of Nkrumahs will come, even after the present leaders have passed.
The remarks fit the tone of the visit. At the summit, President Mahama proposed a partnership with Russia on artificial intelligence and signalled nuclear and solar cooperation with Moscow. He also noted that Ghana will mark 70 years of independence next year, and that Russia stood with the continent during its struggle against colonialism.
Overall, the President’s message placed Nkrumah’s legacy, African unity, resource sovereignty and the pursuit of economic prosperity at the centre of his message to Ghanaians in Russia.
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