Mahama promises ‘Journey to Nkroful’ festival …to attract pan Africans to birthplace of Dr Nkrumah
Former President, John Dramani Mahama, has promised to institutionalise the annual festival that commemorates the birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president, if elected president at the polls on December 7, 2024.
To be dubbed ‘Journey to Nkroful’, Mr Mahama, the opposition National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) presidential candidate, stressed that the festival which comes off on September 21st, the birthday of Dr Nkrumah, would offer the world the opportunity to visit the birthplace of the African of the millennium.
“The next NDC government will recognise this festival with the tittle ‘Journey to Nkroful’ as one of the official events on Ghana’s tourism calendar.
“This festival will become a Pan-African pilgrimage for persons from all over the world to visit the birth place of Dr Kwame Nkrumah,” Mr Mahama stated.
He made this promise at a durbar of the Chiefs and people of Nkroful on Saturday at the festival to commemorate Kwame Nkrumah’s 115 birthday.
According to the former president, there were attempts by a group of people to dilute Kwame Nkrumah’s role in Ghana’s history as the nation’s founder by introducing the idea of a big six.
He said while many, far beyond the big six played significant roles in the independence struggle, Nkrumah was that critical catalyst that brought the struggle to a head and eventually resulted in the historic liberation of Ghana from colonial domination.
The vaunted big six, former president Mahama said, were an accident of history and not a united force as some of them actively opposed Nkrumah’s vision of self-governance.
“The next NDC government will seek to remove the distortions in our history and restore Kwame Nkrumah to his rightful place in the history of Ghana,” he emphasised to applause from the gathering.
He recalled that at the time the need for independence crystallised, the UGCC which was the party of the big six opposed to the granting of independence by Britain, sent a delegation to Britain to petition Queen Elizabeth not to grant independence to Ghana and boycotted the motion of destiny which begun the legislative process to grant Ghana independence.
“How can such a reactionary movement now claim the collective honour as being founders of our nation? This false equivalence of elevating figures whose contributions, while important, did not match the transformational and radical leadership that Nkrumah offered for Ghana’s liberation must be rejected outright,” he stated.
Awulae Attibrukusu II, the President of the Lower Axim Traditional Council, on his part noted that no one could rewrite the history of Ghana as Kwame Nkrumah’s place is well documented.
He stated that the influence and recognition of Nkrumah as founder of Ghana transcends Ghana’s borders a reason he was adjudged the Adrian of the millennium by the BBC in the year 2000.
The Chief of Nkroful, Nana Kwasi Kutuah V, bemoaned the deplorable state of infrastructure in the area and entreated Mr Mahama to revisit the road projects the NDC government started before it lost the 2016 election and upgrade the clinic in the town to a hospital status.
FROM JULIUS YAO PETETSI, NKROFUL
