There are pressing needs, especially in the economy that the people must channel their energies into addressing not a Founders’ Day debate, a Former Senior Advisor at the United Nations, Professor Baffuor Agyeman-Duah has said.
He cautioned politicians against attempting to rewrite Ghana’s history.
He says the politicians should not draw the people into needless debates such as the one on who founded Ghana.
“Our leaders must lead us in such a way that they do not draw us into needless debates especially, we should not seek to rewrite our history,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, August 10 while commenting on the Founders’ Day debate.
He added “Politicians do not write history, there are very important challenges that we are facing and that should be our focus.
“Our economy has been wobbling for the past decades, it is true that it is more challenging lately…we should look at how to develop an economy that is not dependent on the global economy, we initiate domestic policies.”
His comments come at a time when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had objected to the notion that Ghana was founded by one man.
In his 2024 Founders’ Day address on Saturday, August 3, Mr Akufo-Addo objected to the assertion that Ghana was founded by Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
In 2019, Parliament passed a law establishing August 4 as Founders’ Day to honour the collective efforts of those who contributed to Ghana’s independence struggle, while designating September 21 as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day.
This decision sparked protests from some individuals and groups who believe in Nkrumah’s singular role in the country’s founding.
“The formation of the Aborigines Rights Protection, the British West African Nation Congress, the United Gold Coast Convention, the work of countless unsung heroes, and the tenacious spirit of our people all played vital parts in bringing us to freedom and independence.
“Kwame Nkrumah with his charismatic visionary leadership was undoubtedly a major actor in the final lap of our journey to independence and that is why despite the several unfortunate things that happened after independence under his watch, Parliament in 2019, decided to memorialise his date of birth as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, the only Ghanaian so far to be so honoured in our history,” he argued that groups including Joseph Casely Hayford and Thomas Hutton-Mills’ British West African Nation Congress and several others contributed to Ghana’s freedom and subsequent independence.
