Flagstaff House Is The Name And Flagstaff House Must Remain The Name

I have been reading in the Press that the name, “Flagstaff House,” of the seat of government, is being changed to “Jubilee House.” I have also learnt our new President, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo intends to operate instead from the Peduase Lodge in Aburi.

I am totally in objection to both propositions. I am writing to humbly ask President Nana Akufo-Addo not to change the name of Flagstaff House to Jubilee House, as has been reported, and that if the change has already taken place, to revert to the “Flagstaff House.”

The Colonial Administration operated from the Osu Castle. Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, after Independence in 1957 decided to move the seat of government from the Osu Castle, to reflect more our aspirations and hope as a newly independent state, and to affirm the shackles of colonialism have indeed been removed off us. He veritably thought the Osu Castle was a colonial outpost with a long history of slavery even before it became the seat of government for the colonial administration. On assumption of power, he moved the Presidency to the Flagstaff House, which housed his residence on the same premises, as well.

The Flagstaff House, as history tells us, was originally occupied by the Chief of Staff under the colonial administration. It saw an expansion and refurbishment before Nkrumah made it the seat of government. Nkrumah retained its original name, Flagstaff House, because the name connoted leadership and pride. A flagstaff is a pole on which a flag is flown. The seat of government becomes the symbolic pole on which to fly the Flag of the newly independent Ghana so high.

After Nkrumah’s overthrow in 1966, the Flagstaff House was allowed to deteriorate into ruins, through neglect. Successive governments used it for different purposes. The military junta of Flt. Lt. Jerry Rawlings’ Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (A.F.R.C.), in 1979, set up a make-shift military base there, called the Gonja Barracks. With Jerry Rawlings’ second coming, and his launch of the 31^st December, 1981 Revolution, the seat of government of the Provisional National Defence Council (P.N.D.C.) was moved back to the Castle, even though it offered a cramped living space for the Head of State and his family. For this reason and other security considerations under this highly volatile epoch in our political history, Jerry Rawlings lived alone in the living quarters of the Castle, while the wife and children lived in their private residence at Ridge. President Kufuor thought the living quarters at the Castle could not accommodate his family, so as President, he continued to live in his own house at the Airport Residential Area and commuted to the Castle at Osu daily, wadding through all the heavy vehicular traffic. It had become necessary that it was about time Ghana had a proper seat of government with adequate and comfortable accommodation facilities for the first family.

The Kufuor administration secured an Indian loan facility which enabled it rebuild the Flagstaff House into the magnificent and complex edifice it is today.

The design of the main building, the Presidential Palace, drew its inspiration from the Ghanaian traditional stool, “Asesegua.” The Presidential residential bungalow was also rebuilt into a modern edifice, but still retaining many features of its original design to preserve its history. The whole complex was redesigned by an Indian architect and the construction undertaken mostly by Indian workers. It was completed on schedule and commissioned by President Kufuor in November 2007 before he left office, after having served two terms.

The National Democratic Congress (N.D.C.), led by the Late Prof. Evans Fifii Atta-Mills, in opposition at the time, thought the rebuilding of the Flagstaff House, as good and necessary as it was, was a profligate expenditure, which the country could not immediately afford, in the face of other more pressing economic and social needs. This became a big campaign issue, but the Kufour administration stood its grounds and was determined to see the rebuilding of the Flagstaff House come to fruition. It also, just about the same time, saw to the refurbishment of the Peduase Lodge, which had also been allowed to deteriorate to an unhabitable state.

When Prof. Atta Mills assumed the Presidency in 2008, because of the heated divergent opinion about the rebuilding of the Flagstaff House, in the run-up to the 2007 elections, he only partially used the place for his administrative work, but continued to live in his Reggae Manuel residence. It was President John Mahama who brought a complete closure to the usage of the Castle as our presidential administrative outpost and moved the presidency fully into the new Flagstaff House, which had been renamed “Jubilee House” by the Kufour administration because the building was completed in 2007, the year of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee. As stated earlier, it was commissioned by President John Agyekum Kufour in November 2007, before he left office. President John Atta-Mills and many, including me, thought the original name of the Presidency, “Flagstaff House,” had to be retained, to preserve its original history and, also, to pay homage to Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the Republic of Ghana, who first occupied the space, used it for his office and lived on the grounds. Hence, the “Jubilee House,” was dropped by the Mills/Mahama administration and since January 2008 when they assumed the reins of government, the Presidency has been known and called “Flagstaff House,” its true and original name.

Any attempt by the NPP Government in power today to change the name of Flagstaff House back to Jubilee House, with the excuse that that was how the Presidency had been christened, rather belies the real intention of the NPP, which is to obliterate the name or memory of Nkrumah from Ghana’s political history. The action or act, as reprehensible as it is, has deep echoes of a dark epoch in our political history when after the overthrow of Kwame Nkrumah in the 1966 Coup d’etat, his party, the Convention Peoples Party (C.P.P.) was disbanded and completely proscribed from Ghanaian politics. It was a grievous crime to be seen with a picture of Nkrumah or any literature on him; that could easily end you up in prison. Nobody was supposed to mention his name. Indeed, it was a crime to mention his name. Nkrumah, who was our saviour, once upon a time, had become our villain, the devil incarnate himself. His name was removed from every institution or item which bore it. And the name Flagstaff House, to the NPP, direct descendants of the United Party (UP) tradition, from the 1950s and 60s, only invoked spectres of Kwame Nkrumah and all that he stood for.

Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings restored Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to where he rightfully belonged to in Ghana’s political history and revoked the law which banned the C.P.P. from operating as a party and actively participating in Ghanaian politics. In the 1st Republic, the Flagstaff House was synonymous with Kwame Nkrumah. The Flagstaff House was the seat of government. To overthrow Nkrumah’s government, the Flagstaff House became the focal point of attack by the joint military action of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police, the 1966 coup makers. It is now common knowledge that the military coup was backed by Nkrumah’s political foes, that is, the leadership of the United Party (U.P.), in cahoots with imperialist and neo-colonialist forces, as Nkrumah himself described them in his book, “Dark Days in Ghana.”

If in 2017 there is a conscious attempt by the New Patriotic Party (N.P.P.) administration, do not forget, direct descendants of the U.P., to remove the name Flagstaff House off the seat of government, which is what it has been called since 2008, when Atta Mills and the NDC were in power, it obviously is a perpetration, or, rather, continuation of events in the aftermath of the 1966 coup, purposely to eradicate every vestige of the memory of Nkrumah.

President Mahama, unfortunately, did not move to occupy the bungalow provided for the President on the Flagstaff House premises, but continued to live in his Cantonments residence, which he first occupied when he was Vice-President. I am afraid, that was an aberration on the part of President Mahama.

We do not have to continue perpetrating this error. We do not live in a country of lawlessness. We live in an orderly state, governed by the rule of law. The President is supposed to live in the bungalow provided for him at the Presidency and he operates from the office space at the Presidency. This is what prevails in the U.S., at the White House. Every American President moves with his family into the White House and they stay there throughout their tenure in office. We should be able to do the same here in Ghana; since we are growing our democracy in leaps and bounds, we should avoid the arbitrariness where a President can choose to live wherever he wants to live. Once the President is subjected to the laws of the land as pronounced in the Oath he takes when sworn in, the Flagstaff House is the office space and residence the good people of Ghana have provided him whilst he is President, and that is where he must stay and work whilst he is President, whether he likes it or not. I expect our new President, H. E. Nana Akufo-Addo, to move into the Flagstaff House and live and work from there.

The Peduase Lodge was a holiday resort our first President set up in 1959 in the salubrious environs of Aburi, where he could retire on holidays and weekends, for instance, from the hectic life of the city, and still could carry out his work as president. To mention in passing, it is important to note, Nkrumah was a mystic – something most people do not know about him – and frequently needed such retreats away from the capital, like Peduase Lodge, for his long, deep meditations. He had a number of such retreats dotted around the country, in Akosombo, Sekondi and Cape Three Points. The retreat at Cape Three Points, located right in the middle of a heavily wooded area, was veritably named, “Shalimar,” a beautiful garden, where love abides.

Peduase Lodge offered a spacious place where President Nkrumah could also host special receptions for visiting dignitaries. Peduase Lodge is akin to Camp David in the U.S., where President Jimmy Carter could broker a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Peduase Lodge featured prominently in the peace brokerage of the warring factions in the Nigeria Biafra War, in January 1967.

From 1969 to 1972, when H. E. Sir. Edward Akufo-Addo was the President of the country, he resided and worked from the Peduase Lodge. His office as President was a ceremonial one. All administrative powers were vested in the Prime Minister at the time, who was Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia.

FAST FORWARD…JANUARY 2025

To conclude, as a nation, we should institutionalize our national agenda. We should for, instance, stop playing political football with the name of the seat of government. When the NDC is in power, the seat of government is called, “Flagstaff House,” and when the NPP is in power, the name is changed to, “Jubilee House.” The rightful name for the Presidency is, however, FLAGSTAFF HOUSE, and it should remain that! With the return of H.E. John Dramani Mahama and the NDC back to power, the seat of government is now going to be renamed, Flagstaff House. The brouhaha over the rightful name of the presidency has begun again. I recall, when President Akufo-Addo renamed the presidency, “Jubilee House” in 2017 on assumption of power, the NDC vowed to revert the name to “Flagstaff House,” should they come back to power. Now that the NDC is in power, with an overwhelming majority in Parliament, the party should formalize the name, Flagstaff House, into law, so that no future government other than the NDC could just assume power and arbitrarily change the name of the presidency to Jubilee House or any other name.

Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who is the main figure at the centre of the swing of name from “Flagstaff House,” when NDC is in power, to “Jubilee House,” when the NPP is in power, and vice versa, is very much an integral part of Ghana’s socio-economic and political history. Nothing, I reiterate, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, can ever obliterate him from our history. As he himself once said, “Nkrumah never dies.” He is, indeed, alive and hovering over our nation like a Saint. The truth be said, he laid all the foundation work for our contemporary political, economic and social history, and it is imperative we preserve and venerate his name and legacy, including the Flagstaff House, as the seat of government. In the spirit of Africanism, Nkrumah created the beautiful Gold State Sword which our newly sworn-in presidents lift high to show the people of Ghana and the world after taking the oath of office. He created the Parliamentary Mace, as the symbol of office of Ghana’s Parliament, like the Okyeame’s staff. The Okyeame is the Linguist or Spokesperson for the Chief or King in the traditional chieftain court. Nkrumah also created the spectacular State Stool, modelled after the traditional stool, Asesegua, which the newly sworn-in president sits on. He created all this paraphernalia for the swearing in of our newly elected presidents and vice-presidents with the help of the great Ghanaian artist of blessed memory, Kofi Antubam. The Black Star Square, sometimes called the Independence Square, where the swearing-in ceremonies of all our presidents of the Fourth Republic have taken place, save the 2020 swearing in of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo because of COVID-19 and its Social Distancing protocol, with the restriction on public gathering, was also a creation of Kwame Nkrumah for national events, like Independence Day parades.

Let us uphold the name FLAGSTAFF HOUSE for the seat of government.

Rikki Wemega-Kwawu is an internationally renowned contemporary Ghanaian artist and writer, born on February 3, 1959. He is a keen observer and critical commentator of the Ghanaian political and social scene. He lives and works in Takoradi.

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