The former President, John Dramani Mahama has waded into the controversial debate of whether Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is the founder of Ghana.
According to the former President, Nkrumah’s struggle to attain Independence for Ghana cannot be erased stating that Nkrumah is to Ghana as Jesus Christ is to Christianity.
The former President made the comments when he responded to a question during the first reading session of his book “My First Coup D’etat” at the University of Ghana on Tuesday.
“Certainly, one thing we can’t run away from is that, he [Nkrumah] is the founder of our nation. He led the independence struggle. Many people contributed and it happens; in Christianity, there is John the Baptist, there are all the apostles, but who is the champion of Christianity, Jesus Christ.”
Mr. Mahama added; “We don’t undermine the role other people played…but you cannot recognize all those who took part. There is that person who gave the critical spark that eventually led to independence. And you cannot run away from the fact that it is Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
“I believe that one of the things he tried to do was to build the infrastructure of this country and use it as a platform to industralise the country. I believe his vision was far ahead of the country itself and most of us didn’t understand what he was trying to do. But today when we look back, we can see what he was trying to make of this country.”
The debate was started after a speech delivered at Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary parade by President Akufo-Addo came under immense scrutiny after some Ghanaians said the president attempted to downplay the impact of Nkrumah’s contribution towards Ghana’s independence and skew history in favour of his father, Edward Akufo Addo and uncle, J.B Danquah who played vital roles in Ghana’s journey towards independence.
