Remembering Nkrumah ; Ghana’s first President

Last Tuesday, February 24, 2015, marked exactly 49 years since the overthrow of that African referred to in his time as ‘the man ahead of his time’ by the Western world. He was a true leader, a liberator, the first President of the Republic of Ghana, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. His overthrow was perpetrated by a group of military and policemen, led by key figures such as Col E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa and Inspector General of Police J.W.K. Harlley. Files of CIA The files of the US Central Intelligence Agency declassified in 1999 showed that the United States of America (USA) had been trying to influence people to overthrow President Kwame Nkrumah since 1964.  According to declassified files of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US, these men received adequate support from the CIA. This was because Dr Nkrumah’s government posed a great threat to the US and her interests due to the strong socialist leaning of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the heat of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR. It is instructive in this vein to state that the existence of the National Liberation Movement (NLM) with its sole aim of defeating Nkrumah by fair or foul means, provided the impetus for the CIA agenda. The NLM, which engaged in violence, became the vanguard of opposition movements in the country and as aptly captured in his book titled ‘ The Political History of Ghana (1950-2013), Dr Obed Yao Asamoah describes how savage the NLM campaign was, leading to many fatalities, especially in 1955 when Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia was the NLM’s parliamentary leader. Emergence of Nkrumah continued