Let Us Congratulate and Welcome the CPP

News reports indicate that the once dynamic, vibrant and all powerful CPP is holding its congress as I write now. All Ghanaians of goodwill should congratulate that party and welcome it to the current political environment. Below is the exact extract from the Ghana News Agency report on the Congress: “Stephen Ntim, NPP National First Vice Chairman, who was representing his party at the Congress, said… both the CPP and NPP have a common traditional political nucleus having suffered coup d'etats”. Mr. Ntim did not elaborate on the coup d’etats that the two parties suffered. May be that is not relevant now. In my humble opinion, it is relevant for us to know the difference in this embryonic democracy era that we are enjoying. To digress a little, contrary to NPP claims, the midwife of the current democratic milieu in Ghana is the NDC and not the NPP The CPP was thrown out of office with or without CIA participation. The government and party were (as every school child knows in Ghana) under the leadership of the first prime minister and first president of Ghana. He arrogantly called himself the Founder of the Nation. He was a visionary. He was charismatic. He was a great orator who could hypnotize the gullible. He was megalomaniac. Under him Ghana became a one party state de jury. Many political opponents were detained. Many went into exile. Soviet-style security network was installed. Indeed many would argue that these conditions that stifled and choked out the political culture bequeathed to the Gold Coast was politically necessary. Autocrats always put forth such arguments. Autocrats like Hitler, Lenin, Mussolini, Castro and Mugabe all, without exception made such arguments. Profitless state enterprises were established to be the engine for Ghana’s development. Education was given stimulus. But that was accompanied wi! th high doses of blasphemous doctrine like the “President does no wrong’ and ‘the President is a Messiah” When the economy grinded to a halt by thoughtless polices, the white man was blamed. What else do we expect as Black people? We blame the white man for every evil thing in Africa. There is only one exception. We are yet to blame the white man for the existence of mosquitoes. We blame the white man for Trans Atlantic Slave Trade though we were very active and major players. We blame him for the size and boundaries of our states. If the state is too small like The Gambia or Lesotho he is blamable. If it is very big like Congo, South Africa and Nigeria, it is still his fault. One may wish to ask what the optimal size of an African nation is. Meanwhile the average was being fed with lies, with newspaper banners like, ‘the economy was buoyant’ The first coup led by Kotoka ended the above picture. The coup that ended the Second Republic terminated the government led by Dr. Busia (as every school child in Ghana also knows). It was a government aided to win the election by the powers that be in what Afrifah characterized as being ‘military precision’. The reader’s guess is as good as mine to interpret Afrifah’s characterization. To all intent and purpose everything was done covertly and overtly to foist Busia on Ghanaians. Busia, unlike Nkrumah was charismatically challenged. In other words, he was uninspiring just like our current President Kufour. He was not a great orator. Attoh Quarshie could make rings around him with hands down. Whereas Nkrumah had continental aspirations, Busia was at heart a tribal politician. He went to bed with reactionaries like Huphuoet Boigny (of Cote d’Ivoire), Hasting Banda (of Malawi), and Leabua Jonathan (of Lesotho). Together, they championed the idea of having dialogue with Apartheid South Africa. As a group they became a fifth column in the liberation of Africa from the architects and perpetrators of apartheid policy. Whereas Nkrumah devoted a lot of resources in the course of his continental ambitions, Busia expelled all most aliens in Ghana. Ghana became a pariah state at least in West Africa. Unlike the liberal democrat that he claimed he was, Busia government found it difficult to comply with the constitution of the Second Republic as authored by charac! ters like the present Speaker. The constitution for the first time demanded that politicians should declare their assets on assuming of office. They delayed. The student body under NUGS demanded compliance. Their leadership was pilloried in Parliament. Ocran, one of the architects of the coup that toppled Nkrumah demanded compliance. Relentless campaigned of character assassination was unleashed.

As fate would have it an obscure army officer tribally affiliated with Busia as a titular leader kicked Busia and his government out of office. May be Acheampong and his cohorts were not that dumb. By means of ‘military precision’ they crowned Busia. When Busia asked them to pay economic rates for their military pecks they considered that a betrayal. The theatrical discomfort for the military men came to an end. They ended the charade of the Busia-led nightmare.

The rest is history. Let us congratulate the CPP. Let us welcome them with great joys of jubilation. But we must study their history in order to prepare for the future.