The Member of
Parliament (MP) for Adansi Asokwa, K.T Hammond has mounted a spirited defence
for the government’s Holidays Amendment Bill insisting that there was no way Ghana’s
first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah will be recognised as the only founder of the
country.
He maintained that the argument by the Minority to
stage a walkout to express their disapproval for the Bill currently before the House
was flawed because the amendment had the backing of historians in the country.
The Minority in Parliament on Thursday staged a
walkout to express their disapproval for the Holiday Amendment Bill currently
before the House which sought to scrap Republic and AU days as public holidays
and introduce August 4 as Founders’ Day and January 7 as Constitution Day
leaving September 21 as a commemorative day.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), known
for its support for Nkrumaist ideals, deemed the move as an attempt to distort
the nation’s history.
But reacting to the concerns of the Minority, Mr Hammond pointed out that “this is an extremely poor analogy by the Minority which is rather annoying a number of historians in this country.
“Let us get
history right, how will you say there is only one founder of Ghana? We [NPP] of
our Dombo-Busia tradition will never accept that Kwame Nkrumah was the founder
of Ghana but was one of them, among the lot, I will not even say he is the primus
inter pares.
“We have Paa Grant, Dr JB Danquah and Ako Adjei
putting together resources to bring you from the diaspora, how do you come and
say you are the person who started the talk, we will never agree.”
“I pray they (NDC) will never come to government again, but perish the talk if they ever come and as they promise to change it, we will come back and change it.
Already, the NDC
had resolved to fight the change by reverting the new holidays should it
recapture power.
The government contended that celebrating the day as Founder’s day with the country’s independence achievement credited solely to Dr Nkrumah was wrong as others also played key roles in the independence struggle.
Some persons and groups including the Convention People’s Party (CPP) which was formed by Dr Nkrumah criticised the government for the declaration, describing it as an attempt to rewrite the country’s history. –citinewsroom.com
