A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) communication team, Faisal Cisse Ibrahim has accused people who ascribe to the ideologies of the first President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his CPP (Nkrumaists) of inciting hatred against founders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) including J. B Danquah and others who contributed immensely to the Independence of Ghana.
Speaking on Pan African Television, Mr. Faisal Cisse said the Nkrumaists continuous retelling of how J. B Danquah and proponents of the UP tradition opposed Dr. Nkrumah and his government leading to his overthrow are deliberate attempts to incite hatred against them and malign their legacies.
He argued that founders of the UGCC and the UP, just like Dr. Nkrumah, should be celebrated for their immense contribution to the country’s struggle for independence not be maligned and hated because of their opposition to Nkrumah’s political ideologies since ideological differences are acceptable and normal in democratic dispensations.
“We should not use occasions like the independence of Ghana as an opportunity to incite hate under the guise of facts of history against a group of people who also matter as far as the independence struggle of Ghana is concerned. I find that disappointing because for the ordinary young people on the street, when you say these things of a certain people, what is the import? You want them to grow and hate certain people because they opposed Nkrumah?
Every year, you talk about how they hate Nkrumah, how they opposed and it is all based on books you have read. Ideological differences exist in every democratic dispensation and there is nothing wrong with it. We must recognize and acknowledge the efforts of everybody who played a role,” he said.
Pointing to counter narrations to some of the allegations levelled against the UGCC and UP’s founders, Mr. Faisal Cisse said the continuous reliance on narrations in books to malign J. B Danquah, K. A Busia and others is unfair and must cease since those narrations are based on the subjective views of the individual authors and may not reflect true accounts of events in the country’s history.
“Most of us were not there and we are relying on books that people have written which are made up of the opinions of the persons based on the circumstances and the thinking of the person at the time so always you must exercise caution especially when there are other accounts of what had taken placed,” he added.
Founders of the UGCC and the UP notably J. B Danquah, K. A Busia and Obetsebi Lamptey among others were accused of plotting to eliminate Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his government. Some of them were subsequently jailed on allegations of treasonable acts and terrorism under the Preventive Detention Act passed by the CPP’s government led Dr. Nkrumah. J. B Danquah in particular died while serving his jail term under the PDA law in 1965.
Following the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, some people particularly Nkrumaists pointed accusing fingers at K. A Busia and others for behind his overthrow.
