Who Cares: About Who Nkrumah’s Children May Be?

Onsy Nkrumah

By Kwesi Pratt Jnr

I have had the privilege of working closely with three of the publicly acknowledged children of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Founder of the Republic of Ghana and I can say with certainty that they are all very human.

None of them had horns and I did not see any of them with a tail. They all had their strengths and weaknesses.

Indeed, the son of Nkrumah who I respect the most is Professor Francis Nkrumah, a deep thinking Socialist and medical scientist whose modesty is striking.

For Professor Nkrumah, being the son of the most distinguished black leader in the last century ought not to be a ticket for anything. He revers his father but insists that he is not his father. He accepts the philosophy and deeds of his father but insists that it should not confer any special rights or privileges on him.

I met Professor Nkrumah for the very first time through my maternal Uncle Kojo Botsio in the mid 1980s when we went to visit him at his residence in Cantonments.

 He struck me as a very simple man who did not carry his ego on his shoulders. He spoke softly and firmly about the need for Africans to take full control of their own destiny and was passionate about  Nkrumahist revivalism.

I worked with Professor Nkrumah and Comrade Kwame Wiafe on the manifesto of the Popular Party for Democracy and Development (PPDD) in 1992 and later on programmes and projects of the Conventions Peoples Party(CPP) and one thing which has always been clear is that he nurses no personal political ambitions.

 Gamel Nkrumah, the Foreign Editor of Al- Ahram in Egypt also became a close pal and Comrade after he was introduced to me by Napoleon Abdulai in London in 1991 and we worked on the magazine “ Africa World Review” as journalists.

We later collaborated on the 7th Pan African Congress in Kampala, Uganda where we succeeded  in getting Dr Tajudeen Abdul Raheem elected as Secretary- General  even though the Ugandan authorities were pushing for Kwame Toure, a former leader of the Black Panther Movement and then the leader of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party.

Gamal was an extraordinary hard working young man who was exceptionally passionate about pursuing the Nkrumaist agenda. At the time I met him he was still justifying the one party state. He was also dreaming about helping to build a revolutionary Pan African Movement which would unite all the African peoples under one socialist banner.

Gamel appeared to be very ambitious but it was an ambition which was strongly driven largely by his ideological commitments and perhaps the realization that being the son of Nkrumah gave him a certain mileage.

Sekou Nkrumah was completely different. He would publicly declare that his father was a dictator and try to distance his politics from the practices of his father. He did not reject everything that his father stood for but felt very strongly that the objectives of building a humane just  society was possible with methods different from what his father had used.

Sekou and I along with such great activists like Akoto Ampaw, Lt.Owusu Gyimah, Freeman, Ali- Masmadi Jehu- Appiah, Badu Ansah and many others built the  Movement For Freedom and Justice which appointed Professor Albert Adu Boahen as it’s national chairperson.

 The point here is that being Nkrumah’s child does not impose any special qualities. All of Nkrumah’s children are not the same. They are as different as the colours of the rainbow even as they come from the same source.

Nkrumah’s children would not necessarily be good or excellent politicians and managers. Over the last four years, we have seen the fortunes of the Convention Peoples Party dwindle under the leadership of my friend and comrade Samia Yaba Nkrumah.

 It is in this context that the whole contest over who really is Nkrumah’s son or daughter is extremely funny especially when it also occurs within the context of who is most qualified to lead the Convention Peoples Party (CPP).

 First, the point has to be made that the revival of the CPP or Nkrumaism cannot be reduced to a family project in which only those from a certain blood line can participate. Such a posture will completely devalue the mass character of the Nkrumaist movement and reduce it to some feudalist enterprise which has no respect for merit and the philosophical commitments of the Osagyefo.

Secondly, Nkrumah himself was not a product of burdensome privilege.  His parents were not political super stars and the distinguishing thing about him is the fact that he rose from a village boy from Nkroful and occupied the world stage as a liberator.

The current juggling for attention by all kinds of claimants to the “royalty “ of Nkrumah for the sole purpose of becoming national leaders is sickening and an affront to any and all the principles which Nkrumah held dear.

 The latest to jump into the fray and to declare his intention of becoming President of Ghana is a gentleman who calls himself Onsy Nkrumah. He says he is the son of Nkrumah and therefore he has a right to lead the CPP and become President of Ghana.

 Who told this guy that there is an Nkrumah dynasty in Ghana or that he can create one? Even if it were true that he is Nkrumah’s son it would not put him one inch above any other person who aspires to lead Ghana.

The qualification for being President in Ghana does not include being Nkrumah’s son or daughter. The most important consideration ought to be whether candidates for the Ghanaian presidency know what the problems of the country are and whether they have the capacity to deal with those problems.

Samia Yaba Nkrumah, CPP Chairperson

The reaction of Samia Nkrumah to the Onsy fantasy is also interesting and significant. She told Citi FM that the gentleman has “a more sinister agenda.”

Starfmonline.com   quotes Samia as dismissing what she described as the continuous attempts by Onsy and his supporters to vilify her father’s legacy, saying he could not truly be her father’s son.” Our father would not have refused to recognize any son or daughter who came up to him. Everybody knows that he wouldn’t  have denied Onsy or anyone this recognition so why now, many years after his passing without any proof, you just come out. It is clear he is getting backing, there is no doubt about it. Because for the Daily Graphic to refer to him without question, as Nkrumah’s son, I think it is very puzzling “ she said.

 Samia’s reaction is not substantially different from her brother Sekou Nkrumah who has called for a DNA test to confirm Onsy’s parentage.

But who might have told these folks and others that Ghanaians worry about who is or is not the true  son or daughter of the Osagyefo. Unlike some very backward states like the United Kingdom, leadership in Ghana is not by  inheritance and those who aspire to lead must demonstrate capability and not the identity of their parents.

What a shame! 

Editorial

Each for himself and none for …

The news is now full of threats of  strikes and other forms of labour agitations. A number of workers believe they are not getting their due and the State which remains  the largest employer in our context is being called upon to address grievances of dissatisfied employees.

Some of the demands of some workers may appear extravagant but they are not illogical in our context. A number of the protests appear to be motivated by perceived broken promises. If we sit back a bit though we may realize that we are gleefully building a society where individuals are solely responsible for their every need be it in the area of education, health and even security.

In such a context, the tendency is to take whatever can be gotten from the system to ensure a lifetime and more of comfort.

The never ending agitations should warn us of the unsustainability of the path we have chosen. Accumulation of cash and properties in such contexts, are often prompted by fear rather than actual need. Of course the system is inefficient. For the individual dissatisfied worker though, this is no comforting thought especially when around him or her, others appear to have it so good.

In the end it is the definition of the state itself which is at stake. In a society which defines itself as only a collection of individuals without any connecting bonds, people are bound to demand whatever they can get without a thought about consequences to the rest of society.

It was not always like this. It may appear a long way off but there was a time most Ghanaians could access quality education and health regardless of financial circumstances .There was a feeling that the individual’s output feeds the society which in turn supports the individual.

What is seriously lacking this time is human solidarity.  People have no expectation of anyone else but themselves. So when it comes to making demands we demand as we believe would assist us in case of financial distress.

But it’s not too late. We can still work for  cheaper decent solutions  such as a public transportation system, improved quality in the public school system and build decent public houses. These are not short term solutions but they are in the end cheaper than current attempts to handle each category of workers differently.