\ Ghana’s Politics of Vindictive Arrogance or Ignorance. (by L. K. Yeboah)
The ongoing debate about the appropriateness of Busia’s statue in the Sunyani Jubilee (unofficially known as Nkrumah) Park and the putrid political atmosphere it fosters, has brought Ghana's Politics of Vindictive Arrogance or Ignorance into national focus. The debate needs to answer one question: Does Busia’s presence in the Park disrespect Nkrumah’s memory in anyway and does it attempt to rewrite History? In order to effectively answer this question, the reader should come along for a trip down memory lane.
You may hate the deer but single out its running - Akan Proverb: Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first Prime Minister and first President emanated real charisma. This undisputable fact is accepted by his cult of worshipers as well as his detractors. It was his personal charisma that made the “grand dandies” of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) catapult him from a broke, unemployed, lonely Ghanaian student who failed his London Bar Exam (Time Magazine Cover Story of February 9, 1953), to the coveted post of party secretary. And ultimately, onto the national and international stages of high stake political gamesmanship.
Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, Ghana’s second Prime Minister is most often described by one phrase “brilliant academician.” This is an apt depiction since he spent most of his adult life teaching or lecturing in Institutions of higher learning on three different continents. Dr. Busia’s detractors and political opponents see him as a saboteur, traitor and an ineffective leader while his supporters and friends of the Danquah-Busia Political camp, describe him as a great and thoughtful leader who was ever ready to engage his friends and foe alike.
Unfortunately, both Nkrumah and Busia were afflicted by the Cancer of Vindictive Political Arrogance that has permeated Ghana’s politics from the birth of our nation to date. Although Nkrumah began his political life humbly by bringing the common man (“veranda boys”) into the political process, he ended it on the highest pedestal of political arrogance MAKING HIMSELF GHANA’S PRESIDENT FOR LIFE. Busia’s political arrogance was subtler but characterized all his actions, subscribing as he did to the UGCC’s unwritten code of political elitism.
What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make Dr. Kwame Nkrumah turn Ghana into a One Party State and ban the Party of those who brought him back home from poor “shabby lodgings in London's East End”? What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make him jail Dr. J. B. Danquah to death at age 71 in a Condemned Prisoner’s Cell of the Nsawam Prison without any charges? What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make Dr. Nkrumah think that as long as he (Nkrumah) lived, no other Ghanaian was fit to rule the country?
What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make Dr. Busia reject the name Ghana as the official name of our young nation after Nkrumah adapted it in 1957? It is noteworthy that JB Danquah is credited with the name proposal and Busia actually formed the Ghana Congress Party in 1952, years before Nkrumah joined the Ghana name band wagon. What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make Busia petition the British Government NO T TO GRANT Independence to Ghana after his party contested and lost the 1954 election? Was it a case of what Akans call instead of humans eating, animals should eat? Instead of power going to Nkrumah , the white man should continue to rule us? What other than Vindictive Political Arrogance would make Dr. Busia’s government abandon all Nkrumah’s Infrastructural projects and thus let Millions of Ghana’s money go to waste?
Sadly, the canker of Ghana’s Vindictive Political Arrogance did not die with Nkrumah and Busia. It survived both. This nasty Vindictive Political Arrogance is responsible for Rawlings’ AFRC murders of General Afrifa and others. It is also guilty in the abduction and killings of innocent judges again under Rawlings’ rule. It is what drives Ex-President Rawlings everyday to attribute all ills of mother Ghana to Kufour’s eight year rule. Ex-President Kufour and his NPP are not immune from Vindictive Political Arrogance either. The nation remembers the NPP’s political Witch Hunts, the party’s invocation of the Ill Defined Law of “Causing Financial Loss to the State” to go after political opponents.
It is no big deal that Busia and Nkrumah (one time members of the same party) evolved to hate each other. It is okay that Rawlings and Kufour (one time members of the same government) show their immaturity by refusing to speak to each other. Kids and toddlers do that everyday on the World’s Play grounds. These grown folks can continue to act as kids. Who knows what they said to each other in private. It is however dangerous for their followers (in the dark) to break into camps and go after each others throat just because their arrogant Ex-presidents cannot stand each other. Vindictive Political Arrogance coupled with Ignorance is at the root of all mass political slaughters or atrocities the World over.
If one mistakenly kills, another does not mistakenly skin it - Akan Proverb: On the Sunyani Park issue, other questions pop up. What did the PNDC and NDC do for the Park?
Reports reaching this writer show that the PNDC and NDC governments paid no attention to the Sunyani Park for all the years they were in power. It was Kufour’s NPP that re-innovated the Park, gave it an official name, “Jubilee Park,” elected Busia’s statue in it and made it a tourist attraction. Should the NPP have kept Nkrumah’s Name on the Park? Not really. Jubilee Park is Neutral. Jubilee Park is appropriate especially if one considers the fact that 4th of April 2009 marked the 40th Anniversary of the creation of the Brong Ahafo Region.
Does Busia statue belong in the park? Does his presence attempt to rewrite History? YES! And NO! Busia from Brong Ahafo, Ghana’s second Prime Minister was the main opposition leader to Nkrumah after 1951. Although J.B. Danquah was the Patron of both Nkrumah and Busia, Danquah’s failure to win elective office after 1951 greatly diminished his political role. Busia carried the mantle. Busia’s statue therefore would be appropriate even if the Park was named after Nkrumah. True History tell the story of all actors with no bias. There would be no Nkrumah, and no Ghana without the UGCC, Danquah and Busia.
Should Nkumah’s statue be elected in the park alongside Busia’s? YES! YES! And YES! Has any Ghanaian Politician or Talking Head, heard of Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park in South Dakota, USA? The faces of four Ex-American Presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln are carved into a slope of that mountain. Some of these Presidents made very powerful enemies but no American is demanding their removal from the Park. NKRUMAH and BUSIA were Ghana’s first and second PRIME MINISTERS. Put them side by side in the Park. Let History reflect truth. Don’t skew it to favor just NKRUMAH or BUSIA.
Should the NDC change the name back to Nkruamah Park or move Busia’s statue? NO! And NO! The NPP reportedly, allocated GH ¢400,000 for the Jubilee Park and some renovation projects. What did the NDC do for the Park when it was in power between 1992 to 2000? What has the NDC done for the Park since assuming power in 2009? Instead of tearing things down, the NDC should build on the NPP’s work by adding the statues of Dr. Nkrumah and the Brong Ahafo chiefs who were instrumental to the creation of the region. Removing Busia or changing the Park’s name back is nothing but Vindictive Political Arrogance.
By L. Kojo Yeboah, USA. (The author is a Bono, Kwadwo is spelt Kojo for easy pronunciation by all)