The Date: Twenty-Fourth February- Fifty Years On, But What New Can The Cockerel Offer?

Scanning of a human brain by X-rays

It was Thursday morning on the fifty-fifth day of 1966, and in the month of February, when the radio boomed with an announcement that a joint military and police operation had taken over the reins of government. There was a coup d'état, the first successful one in Ghana, which broke whatever myth surrounded the Convention People's Party (CPP) regime led by Osagyefuo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It was the eighth successful coup in Africa. Some named it the “End of Tyranny”, and others claimed it was “Ghana's Day of Shame.”

Today, as we celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime, we do so against the backdrop of the clarion calls by the new CPP to Ghanaians to drop the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the November 7, 2016 General Elections, and return this country back to the socialist rule started by Dr. Nkrumah. I ask what new thing can they implement in governance that is unique to Nkrumah, since everything good he did has been executed by successive governments.

Let us examine some things done during Nkrumah's regime that are lost on us now and are possibly left for the new CPP will do. Preventive Detention Act (PDA), which handed indefinite jail terms without trial to anyone, even with the least suspicion of making any act or speech that could suggest treason or an anti-Nkrumah attitude. This PDA is still defended by Nkrumaists as the best at that time. So will the new CPP reintroduce it?

The National Assembly (Disqualification) Act (NAA) sought to disqualify from the House those who failed to carry out their parliamentary duties. The PDA was used to detain vocal opposition members of Parliament (MPs), and then the NAA was used to kick them out of the House. This was a simple method of reducing opposition members in Parliament, making the CPP annex the seat through bye-elections. Will the new CPP reintroduce this law?

Force Report Act (FRA), which threw into jail with heavy fines anyone who uttered a word deemed to be an insult or scandalous to the persons of Nkrumah and any of his ministers. Today, we freely insult our presidents and ministers, calling them failures among others, with the Nkrumaists shouting the loudest. In case the CPP forms a government, will they reintroduce FRA to make sure we fail to point out their mistakes?

The Chiefs (Recognition) Bill made it a criminal offence for anyone to treat as deposed any person recognised by the government as a chief, and to treat as chief anyone not recognised by the government as such. Will the new CPP government reintroduce this law and ensure all chiefs and traditional leaders are from the CPP stock?

These are but a few things that the new CPP may reintroduce. In fact, in 2004, their flagbearer, Mr. Aggudey, leaked out plans of the CPP to put a stop to free speech and expression, when he said as part of his party's manifesto, his government would reintroduce the Criminal Libel Law.

One important thing that Nkrumah introduced, and which Nkrumaists continue to defend, was his life-presidency and one party state. Will it be something new that the new CPP will reintroduce into our constitution, and carry on the dream of a president for life and a one party state? Mind you, if they were able to change Ghana's Constitution to suit Nkrumah, then what can't they do to our current imperfect constitution?

-What child and youth policy will the new CPP introduce? Will it reintroduce the formation of ideological camps to train children to grow to believe that the president is more powerful, and can be relied upon to provide all their needs than God can?

Ghanaians should never forget those days when the Young Pioneer Movement was a powerful assembly of children and youth who even adults kowtow to. These young citizens were made to think Nkrumah was God, and had it not been the Catholic Youth Organisation movement instituted in every Catholic school, all youth at that time would have been completely brainwashed and made to adore Nkrumah, as they should have adored God. The then Anglican Bishop of Accra spoke against this and was deported.

What agriculture policy will the new CPP government implement? Will it reintroduce the state farms system, where workers just go to clock in everyday, but use state inputs and machinery to cultivate their own farms, or will it restart the importation of snow ploughs from Russia instead of tractors?

Today, the new CPP is shouting hoarse against acts of corruption, but will never talk about what happened in the CPP regime. When Krobo Edusei, then Minister of Industry, was relieved off his post for acquiring funds beyond his means to build a mini castle and buy a golden bed worth £3,000 or over £465,000 (GH¢2,570,000) in today's present value, nothing was done to make him to, at least, retrieve the loot to the state.

He was, however, later reinstated to government and awarded a cabinet post of agriculture. Will the new CPP reward their corrupted ministers of state by reassigning them other fat portfolios? How can this new CPP fight corruption then? In fact, we heard of internal corruption within the new CPP, with charges against one of its losing presidential candidates, and do we hear of acts of corruption in some other party which is in the charge of a socialist Nkrumaist?

Still on corruption, will the cost of projects be inflated eight times over like the construction cost of the bungalows and administration block of the shoe factory built in the CPP era? Will the President's Contingency Fund, which is not subject to parliamentary scrutiny, be reintroduced?

Nkrumah is said to be corruption-free and had no property or even a bank account, so then who owned the £1.8 million Guinea Press? Assuming, without admitting, that Nkrumah was not corrupted, then it will be obvious what some of his people, past and present, are. They should bring back Nkrumah from the dead, for it seems none of his disciples is clean.

What about rule of law? Will the new CPP reintroduce the executive powers given to Nkrumah to dismiss judges who do not make a ruling in his favour? May I refer Ghanaians to the Kulungugu Bombing trials, when justices of the Supreme Court who dismissed charges against three of the accused, namely CPP's Tawiah Adamafio, Ako Adjei (both cabinet ministers) and C.S.S. Crabbe (a CPP national executive officer), found themselves dismissed on December 8, 1962 and a retrial ordered, which convicted the three.

In an era of free market economy, will the new CPP reintroduce a closely knit command economy and nationalise all industries and businesses in the country? Ivor Greenstreet had drawn hints of nationalisation in recent newspaper reportages. Whenever will these socialists learn that during the CPP regime of Nkrumah, the only industries which boomed and survived the communist rules were in the private sector?

We had the cocoa industry and the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) Aluminum smelter among others. Even with Valco, Nkrumah drew the worse deal for Ghana, when he agreed to allow Kaiser to set up a plant in Ghana and draw on bulk of the electricity and pay much lower than the going commercial rate for electricity. Kaiser refused to mine bauxite in Ghana to feed the factory by telling Nkrumah that Ghana's bauxite was inferior, whereas it was the fear of nationalisation of the industry that informed that decision.

And, finally, will the new CPP introduce a system where government funds would be withdrawn out of accounts? I remember that out of the £240 million (£40.6 billion or GH¢231.7 billion in today's present value) seed capital given to us by the British in 1957, the money dwindled to £500,000.00 (£77.5 million or GH¢441.75 million in today's present value) by February 11, 1963. Meanwhile, that year, the external debt of Ghana hit £184 million (£28.5 billion or GH¢162.5 billion in today's present value).

The overthrow of Nkrumah had nothing to do with the economic mess and corruption, but rather, because of his fatal decision to interfere with the army, the way he did with other sectors of state. Setting in party spies to infiltrate the army and break its cohesion, and the undue salaries and benefits given to his own Presidential Guards, who were mainly drawn from his Nzema tribe, made the army have deep and dangerous resentment. And they struck when the time was ripe: Thursday February 24, 1966.

The Nkrumaists today keep blaming some conspiracy between the UP Tradition and the CIA for the toppling of Nkrumah. In recent CIA files, the agency distanced themselves from the February 24 coup. That this event was welcome news for most Ghanaians was manifested in some top CPP government and party officials who condemned Nkrumah after the overthrow.

Even if the CIA aided the coup makers, what about Libya's role in the overthrow of the Nkrumaist pro-socialist government in 1981? They even set up a military base in here. That the NLC was all UP is another fallacy. Why will J.A. Ankrah plan to form his own party, when the Progress Party, an offshoot of the UP, was formed? And one member of government with the rank of Brigadier was a full Nkrumaist.

Forty-five years out of our fifty-nine years of independence has been under some form of socialist rule, and we are not out of the woods yet. The new CPP could only come and experiment with the new world order, and, trust me, they will make such a mess, for the Cockerels have nothing new to offer.

Commonsense with Daniel Dugan