“THE BURDEN OF MY LIFE IS TO LIVE IN SUCH A WAY THAT I MAY BECOME A LIVING SYMBOL OF ALL THAT IS BEST IN CHRISTIANITY AND IN THE LAWS, CUSTOMS AND BELIEFE OF MY PEOPLE”. Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah of Africa
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, welcome to the press conference of the Osagyefo Youth Movement, the vanguard or asafo of the teaching, development vision and exemplary selflessness of the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the Founding President of the Republic of Ghana and co-President of the Republic of Guinea. We are most grateful that you found time to attend this event allowing us, through you, to present to the Ghanaian public the pressing matter of unification of Nkrumaists and the CPP family, now divided since 31st December, 1981 when the predecessor of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), People’s National Party (PNP) government and its state president, Dr. Hilla Limann, were overthrown in a coup d’état masterminded by former President Jerry Rawlings and retired Captain Kojo Tsikata.
Ladies and gentlemen of the media, we value and respect your presence.
It is a historical fact that Rawlings and Tsikata overthrew a democratically elected Nkrumaist government in the same manner as Kotoka and Afrifa overthrew a democratically elected CPP government on 24th February 1966. The Kotoka / Afrifa regime proscribed the CPP and the Rawlings / Tsikata regime kept the ban in place in their own calculated interest. Although the Rawlings / Tsikata PNDC military regime managed to entice key CPP members into its ranks the PNDC and its successor NDC mufti regime never saw it in their interest to unban the CPP. Like the proverbial termite, Kojo Tsikata penetrated the CPP house and has kept the remnants in rancor and division till today. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah aptly described these Western intelligence teleguided coupists as “quislings” – meaning: a traitorous national who aids the invader of his country and often serves as chief agent or governor.
This fragmentation and weakening of the centre of the CPP brought in its trail suspicion, mistrust, hatred and disunity among members of a family which hitherto fondly referred to themselves as “COMRADES”. Coupled with this, revisionism was sponsored and fanned to obliterate the monumental development and social cohesion achievements of the CPP government and make the CPP unattractive. Despite the NDC exercising absolute power the longest and having its ranks filled with purported Nkrumaist stalwarts of wealth and influence, not a single book of Nkrumah is a prescribed text in any of our schools or are any of his books made available on library shelf’s for borrowing reference. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, is it not the same professed Nkrumaist stalwarts who were charged with the duty of divesting the country of over 130 industries established by the CPP government and which were strategically spread across the districts of Ghana? It is said that the insect that will bite you is found in your own clothes. Yes, the PNDC and NDC came to finish what the CIA set out to do – the destruction and prevention of the growth, development and inspiring influence of the CPP and ideals of Nkrumah in Ghana and the rest of the Pan – African world.
But we of the Osagyefo Youth Movement testify to the truth of the struggle of Ghana and Africa’s independence, and will speak of our gallant warriors of our independence struggle and their sacrifices with respect and love.
The first generation of the Convention People’s Party – the freedom fighters and nation builders of yore – built industrial, agricultural, technological, trade, commercial, financial, educational and health institutions in order to consolidate and accelerate all – round national development so as to wipe out poverty, illiteracy and all other evils of underdevelopment within a generation and in our lifetime. Our forebears were therefore industrious and thought ahead, planned and built for generations to come.
They built dynamic economic institutions of progress and not extractive institutions of control, violence and corruption that have come to characterize the NDC regimes. In doing the bidding of the CIA, the World Bank and the IMF, the Rawlings / Tsikata regimes assumed the predatory habits of their colonial masters and became the neo-colonialists. No one can testify to this fact other than former President Rawlings who has come forth from the depths of the NDC habitat to announce to the world that the ruling NDC elite are a bunch of “greedy bastards”. It is said that when the frog comes out of the depths of the river to announce that the crocodiles are plundering everything around them you will be stupid to ignore the warnings of the frog. These “greedy bastards” are plundering the oil and gas revenue, the cocoa and gold revenue, the social security and national lottery revenue, tax and VAT revenue, the harbor and ports revenue, the tolls and border revenue, and foreign aid and grants revenue. Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, we will not wait for you to tell us that we forgot to mention the “financial engineering” revenue and the institutionalization of “create, loot and share” at the expense of the rest of society. Now the name Woyome has become an anathema of everything that is wrong with a corrupt and plundering regime. Former President Rawlings has every reason to abhor Woyome. The chickens have come home to roost.
As corruption has set the ruling NDC in collision course with the population the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) is beset with internecine warfare. Bedeviled by the polarizing and unhealthy state of affairs within the ruling NDC and the main opposition NPP the public is hankering for the unity of the fragmented Nkrumaist front as an alternative. Such is the voice of the people beckoning Nkrumaists and the CPP to unite and present and electoral team that will be worthy of their votes.
It is for this reason that we the Osagyefo Youth Movement (OYM) appropriately endorsed the call made by Samia Yaba Nkrumah, the former Chairperson and Leader of the CPP, on 21st September 2013, for all adherents of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and of the CPP to return home to the CPP.
In response to Samia Nkrumah’s call an Nkrumaist Unity Council was formed and under its auspices a series of meetings, press conferences and correspondence calling on the CPP, PNC, GCPP and PPP to engage in a complementary and comprehensive endeavor to unite under a single Nkrumaist party – the CPP, were held and exchanged, with a rallying call of “ALL NKRUMAISTS GOING BACK TO OUR FATHER’S HOUSE”.
These initiatives culminated in a meeting at Amangyina Ebiradze Fie at Essikado on Sunday the 12th day of July, 2016, after twelve months of persistent emotional appeals made by the Nkrumaist Unity Council.
The Essikado meeting which was honoured by the leadership of the CPP and a delegation from the PPP arrived at a clear and unequivocal understanding that the cause of unity as agreed would be wholeheartedly implemented. The PNC which was absent at the meeting, later agreed to join the CPP and the PPP, in moving the implementation of the Essikado Accord forward. Ladies and Gentlemen of the media, time really flies and we are now in the period of the first anniversary of the Essikado Accord.
Currently as we speak, the whole unification project seems to be shrouded in secrecy, with the elders and leaders of the parties involved not coming out clear as to what has transpire so far. Meanwhile, the centre of the CPP is not holding as things fall apart with the general – secretary and the youth leadership at daggers end with the party chairman and leader and the presidential candidate. The virus of mistrust and suspicion has seized the heart of the party and placed the party in a state of cardiac arrest. The heart of the matter is the fear and suspicion that the chairman and leader and the president candidate of the party have rented the party to the ruling NDC for “ a mess of potage” ( to quote the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah).
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media would recall that soon after the election of Mr. Ivor Greenstreet as the CPP flagbearer, Dr. Yao Graham, the National Coordinator of the Third World Network, on 1st February, 2016 issued a prophetic statement, as reported by Nathan Gadugah of Myjoyonline, saying that the perception that the CPP can be rented either to the governing NDC or the NPP does not bode well for the party and that the CPP must wean itself completely from the two biggest parties in the country. Dr. Graham went on to state categorically that Nkrumah’s vision was relevant today as it was back then but the apostles of that vision have failed to mesh that vision into the politics of the time.
This brings to the fore the absolute disrespect being exhibited now some key members of the fragmented Nkrumaist / CPP family toward the teaching and legacy of the Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The fact of the matter is, if members of the family have any respect for the unifying force and personality of the founder and his development philosophy, these professed Nkrumaists would have united the Nkrumah House by now and prepared and presented themselves as the alternative government – in- waiting.
Unfortunately, present day members of the Nkrumaist / CPP family would only pay lip – service to the ideals of the Osagyefo Dr. Kwamen Nkrumah and only adorn the party for rent only to satisfy their own selfish ends.
Nkrumism teaches that comrades must not let enmity and greed lead them to act unjustly, rather comrades should always act in a transparent, fair and equitable manner, because such is the standard required by the teachings of founding father.
The Nkrumaist/ CPP family have to consider its responsibilities to Ghana first and foremost. If we fail to fulfill our obligation to mother Ghana on the strength of our exceptional history and open record of nationwide development and promotion of equal opportunity and affirmative action that once united and energized Ghanaians and gained us worldwide respect, we will then let Ghana fall into disrepute and its subsequent destruction should be expected.
The anxiety over possible national disintegration along ethnic lines is the biggest threat to Ghana today. Whilst it is true that current indications suggest that a severe civil strife is likely to be ignited from the camps of either the NDC or the NPP, the truth is that Nkrumaists cannot escape any such conflagration and so Nkrumaists must unite to rescue Ghana from the neo-coloniaists. It is dark days in Ghana now and every Ghanaian and especially members of the media should get a copy of Dr. Nkrumah’s book- DARK DAYS IN GHANA- and read and discuss it without prejudice.
The Osagyefo Youth Movement (OYM) is warning the Nkrumaist / CPP family of catastrophic consequences, if true unity amongst Nkrumaists is not realized now.
Did the presidential candidate of the CPP not campaign on the premise of unity at the party’s delegates congress held at the Trade Fairs site? What is his state of mind now? And likewise, what is the state of mind now of the chairman and leader of the party as he also campaigned promising to cleanse and unite the Nkrumah house? Both were elected and given the mandate on great expectation of eventual electoral victory.
The leadership of the CPP should fulfill without fail the mandate of congress to achieve the unity of Nkrumaist parties unless of course, now that they have achieved power, they have no interest in the recue Ghana mission? The PNC and the PPP must go back to their father’s house, because there are many mansions to accommodate any personal ambition. The Nkrumaist Parties should unite and stop paying lip – services to the cause of Nkrumaism.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the media we affirm and respect your value to society and trust that you will record and report, without prejudice, our statement and especially the substance of the consequent open discussion.
President
O. Y. M
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