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Ghana will honor the memory of its first leader Osagyefo, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, tomorrow, Tuesday September 21, 2021, for his outstanding contribution to national liberation and development.
In this regard, the Home Office earlier in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Minister Ambrose Dery declared the aforementioned date a legal public holiday and urged the public to l ‘observe as such throughout the country.
The day is usually marked with conferences and events to commemorate the achievements and legacy of Dr. Nkrumah.
However, when it falls on a weekend, the following Monday is considered a public holiday.
The Convention People’s Party, which was founded and led by Dr Nkrumah as part of the measures to mark the day, will host a symposium to commemorate Dr Nkrumah’s 112th birthday on the theme: ‘Relevance of Nkrumahism to Addressing Socio-Challenges Economics of Ghana Today ”.
Prior to the passage of the Public Holiday Law Amendment Bill in March 2019, the September 21 public holiday was known as “Founders Day,” but Founder’s Day is now celebrated on August 4.
Dr Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909 in Nkroful in the western region of Opanyin Kofi Nwiana Ngolomah and Madame Elizabeth Nyaniba.
He attended Achimota School and also trained as a teacher. He pursued graduate studies from 1935 in the United States and obtained a BA from the University of Lincoln in 1939.
He also received a BA in Sacred Theology in 1942, an MA in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942, and an MA in Philosophy in 1943. He then obtained a Doctorate in Philosophy.
Britain, after the 1844 Bond and the Annexation Wars, took control of parts of the territory now called Ghana, naming the patchwork British Gold Coast.
Britain was weakened by WWII and as a result of a growing desire for independence, the Gold Coast was put on the path to independence with the Convention People Party sweeping all pre-independence elections and independent elections. Ghana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to achieve independence on March 6, 1957.
Dr Nkrumah was the main driving force behind Ghana’s independence from British rule in the post-war era.
Among the notable remarks he made that resonate across time and space is one on the day Ghana gained independence, “Finally the battle is over! And so, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever ”.
He also made the African liberation struggle a Ghanaian task when he declared that “Our independence will only be meaningful when it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent”.
Thousands of Ghanaians had gathered on former polo grounds that had become the mausoleum of Nkrumah to see and hear their first leader declare independence at midnight after setting up the Ghanaian news agency hours earlier.
In 1960 Prime Minister Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah was sworn in as the country’s first president and the republic was proclaimed on July 1, 1960.
In February 1966, while on a state visit to Vietnam and China, his government was overthrown in a military coup by parts of the military and police.
Dr Nkrumah was offered a house in Conakry, Guinea, and never returned to Ghana. He died in April 1972 in Bucharest, Romania.
In September 2009, former President John Atta Mills declared September 21 (the centenary of Kwame Nkrumah’s birth in 1909) Founder’s Day as a public holiday in Ghana.
Dr Nkrumah ensured that the Ghana flag designed by Madam Theodosia Okoh was adopted when the nation gained independence.
The colors of the flag – red symbolize the bloodshed during the liberation struggle; green represents beauty, agriculture or vegetation; yellow represents mineral wealth; and the black star represents African freedom and identity.
When interacting with Ghanaians, Ms. Hannah Ashiokai, a student at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said: “Dr. Nkrumah has done what I heard so well and some of his works have caught me. been shown. Even with the courage with which he spoke, if we get a president like him again, I think Ghana will move forward ”.
Mr Thompson Gator, a businessman, said: “Although some people think otherwise, I know for sure that we can never again have a president like Dr Nkrumah. He loved his country and Africa as a whole and believed in us ”.
Ms Ama Serwaa Darko, a trader, said: “Although I now sympathize with another political party, I believe in the ideologies of Dr Nkrumah and his CPP. The problem is, I cannot say if the current leadership of the CPP has this courage and this pure heart that Nkrumah had to serve ”.
GNA
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