An Author and Director for the Centre for Asian Studies (CAS) at the University of Ghana, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, has stated that Ghana’s diplomatic relations with China was established and by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah prior to Ghana’s independence gained in 1957.
According to the Director for the Centre for Asian Studies, he revealed that, “Ghana South of the Sahara or Ghana when it comes to black Africa, is the country with the longest relationship with China apart from Egypt,” he said.
On 5th July, 2020, Ghana marked its establishment of 60years of diplomatic relations with China.
“Kwame Nkrumah had begun to think about China and Asia, even before independence. So, when he became government leader, he begun moves into how that section of the world will be approached by Ghana. So, he actually sent someone from CPP (Convention People’s Party) to Burma and tried to begin the process of establishing contact between Ghana and China.
“And then Bandung came into the focus which is the Afro-Asian Conference, which took place in 1955. Nkrumah could not attend that conference because, the British told him that if he went, it will jeopardize the independence interaction. So, he asked one of his key guys to go; Kojo Botsio and Alex Kwesi Sackey. Having done that, he had in a sense, had established the interactions with Asia and in particular, with China. By 1960 when Ghana became republic, he moved to get formal interactions established between Ghana and China.”.
According to the Author, Kwame Nkrumah wanted Ghana to become a liberalized country and fast-track 2020, Dr. Amoah believes Kwame Nkrumah has won the debate of non-liberalization.
“And now with Nana-Addo and also with Kufuor, ironically again, these guys are the liberal guys but, they are now almost taking the state and trying to use it.
“Look at the responses to COVID-19, free water, free electricity in Ghana under people who believe in the market? ‘Free SHS’. I think Nkrumah has won the debate that his opponents are going back to non-liberalization”
Also, an Engineer and Author of the Kwame Nkrumah: ‘Africa’s Man of the Millennium’, Mr. Eric Atta-Sonno has stated that Kwame Nkrumah’s leadership as a president cannot be compared to any other president in Ghana, in terms of economic development and a sense of identity as a people. He argued that, structures were already in place before the successive governments took office, but Kwame Nkrumah had to start from scratch, making the first President’s task harder.
“I really will doubt if any leader will like to compare with Nkrumah. I think you must juxtapose this with the country he inherited. We started off without a country and so, he then needed to build the country, set up institutions and ensure that the country was moving; that in itself was work. These other leaders, inherited a country. Forget about whether the economy is good or not, they inherited a country. You need to even appreciate the way we even got the independence, with all the fight.”
However, Mr. Atta-Sonno argued that President Kwame Nkrumah came out short in the area of governance. “I think that, he got a bit too personal when the attacks where coming. Some of the legislations that went through parliament, if you go through them and read, they are horrible; the constitution of 1960, 25 pages doesn’t come anywhere close to what we have. So, in governance, you will fault him a lot,” he remarked.
Even though other countries like South Korea, Singapore and China had draconian laws, President Kwame Nkrumah gagged the press, curtailed freedom of speech and acted as an authoritarian. Imposing a one-party state and passing laws that landed his opponents in jail.
“There were legislations that were passed. National Assembly Disqualification Act, I think it was passed in 1963 or 1964, a member of parliament misses sittings for 20 days, you are out of parliament. There was PDA (Preventive Detention Act of 1958), PDA allowed anybody to be detained and arrested for any reason that the system determined was wrong. If you are a very loud MP, you can be taken out for 20 days and on the 20th day, they will take you to parliament, and they will say you have not come for 20 days so, you are out. Meanwhile, they are the same people that detained you.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Eric Atta-Sonno reiterated that, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s policy decisions for Ghana were of the highest quality.
“I think Nkrumah’s legacy for me, is his policy decisions. I don’t know whether you have had the opportunity of reading the seven-year development plan. I have not seen the original document but, what I have seen is a 250-page document which was presented to the parliament, and when you read it with all the projections he was making, you ask yourself how could a human being come up with something like that, it showed the seriousness with which he took the development of our country.
“You look at the accelerated development plan for education and all of that. He realized that, he had inherited the country which was bankrupt as far as the economy was concerned, as far as education was concerned; in various aspects. His policy decisions were just top-notch and for me, that is the key thing. We could talk about infrastructure, we could talk about other things but, I think that the bed rock is his policy decisions.”
It can be recalled that, Monday 21st September was marked as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day which is a Statutory Public Holiday to celebrate Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah for his achievement and honor his bravery in saving Ghana from the dictatorship rule by the British Governance of the Gold Coast.
Prior to the passing of the Public Holiday Amendment Bill into law in March 2019, the holiday on September 21st was known as Founders’ Day which is now celebrated as a public holiday on August 4th.
