Nkrumah’s political, economic ideologies still relevant for Africa’s development – Pan Africanist

Mr Harrison Owusu, a Movement Coordinator of Africans Rising, a Pan-African movement, has paid tribute to the late Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, for championing the cause of the continent’s progress.

He said, Dr Nkrumah’s belief in “a united and wealthy Africa independent of foreign aids and donors to realise the people’s development agenda, is still relevant today.”

“To us as a Pan-African movement, there cannot be a better time for the continent to begin to embrace the late Dr Nkrumah’s ideologies than now.

“His vision in seeing to a united Africa, where the people could interact and trade freely, utilising the continent’s mass resources for the benefit of the people, should be considered critically, in the wake of the current development challenges facing the people,” the Movement Coordinator told the Ghana News Agency, in an interview in Accra.

Ghana on Wednesday, September 21, marked the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, a holiday commemorating the birthday of Ghana’s first prime minister, and first president.

Nkrumah was born Kwame Francis Nwia Kofie in the south-west of the Gold Coast in 1909.

His educational career would see him study economics and sociology in America in the late 1930’s, where he nursed the ambition to lead the emancipation of the African continent.

His charismatic leadership advanced the cause of independence for most countries on the continent, especially sub-Saharan Africa.

Political scientists argue that Nkrumah’s philosophy dictated his political career and his quest for national and continental unity.

Mr Owusu bemoaned the current plight of the continent – poverty, travel restrictions across the borders, hunger, language barrier, and over-dependence on the western world for economic activities.

The time has come for the continent to work hard, engender self-confidence and pull resources together within the Pan-Africanism context for its sustainable development.

He advocated for the use of a common currency across Africa in order to facilitate business and economic activities.

Additionally, the respective governments ought to ensure that their borders were not that restrictive to enhance the movement of the people in the name of African unity.