The National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, has accused President Akufo-Addo of dishonesty in his speech during Monday’s Ghana at 60 anniversary celebration.
“Some of the things that they put in there [Ghana@60 brochure] were not only inaccurate but were disingenuous,” he told Francis Abban on Morning Starr Tuesday.
In what many described as a comprehensive history of the country’s independence struggle, Akufo-Addo chronologically narrated the struggle to independence.
He recounted the formation of the first political party, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and events that led to the invitation of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to join the struggle.
“The founders of the UGCC, then, met to demand independence from the British and 70 years after that event, one still marvels at the clarity of thought and the passion that they displayed. Some of the names of that momentous day have survived in our written history and folk memory.
“Five of them are on our Ghanaian currency: Joseph BoakyeDanquah; Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey; William Ofori-Atta; Ebenezer Ako-Adjei; and Edward Akufo-Addo. Kwame Nkrumah, the sixth of the Big Six on the currency, was to join them later,” he said.
In his reaction, however, Mr. Monarh said “the icon of the movement [Dr. Nkrumah] is what we hail. It doesn’t mean others did not play any role,” adding that “others did not lead the revolutionary push to ensure that we had independence as Dr. Nkrumah did.”
“But I can understand from where I stand that this attempt is not just to give us the true reflection of our history but to come and use it as a basis to say that there is no founder in our nation, but there are founders so that they would be able to tamper with the founder’s day celebration and incorporate in it others who they claim had played some significant role in the struggle for independence. I think that is the purpose of this Independence Day speech that president Nana Akufo-Addo gave,” he added.
