Kwame Nkrumah, The Other Side

JohnShao · 2010-05-06T06:08:50+00:00

Kwame Nkrumah, The Other Side. From The Editors Desk: Following in the footsteps of Nkrumah? The Standard (Zimbabwe) Saturday, 17 April 2010 http://www.thestandard.co.zw/ After re-reading President Robert Mugabe's speech on the eve of Independence in April 1980 (reproduced on page 21 of the print version) I and many other people have been asking: "What then went so completely wrong?" I thought of Ghana's independence ruler, who also just happens to be Mugabe's role model, Kwame Nkrumah. Mugabe was last week calling for the preservation of Nkrumah's legacy. Rashid Suleiman, who is one of the many of his biographers, had this to say: "Though Nkrumah is hailed in many quarters as a genuine African hero because of his rabid anti-imperialist stand and overzealous pursuit of Pan-African ideals, a look at his record reveals he was one of the worst dictators on the continent. Even his supposedly hallowed reputation as a Pan-Africanist par excellence is marred by his thinly veiled ambition to dominate the continent. "In 1963, Nkrumah's suggestion to form a union government of Africa was rejected after he was accused of harbouring ambitions to rule the entire continent. Many fellow African heads of state were always wary of him because his overzealous pursuit of Pan-African unity betrayed a grand plan to dominate the continent. "On the domestic front, a liberal mixture of extreme paranoia, a verbose sense of grandeur, a misguided notion of messianic calling and know-it-all attitude turned Nkrumah into the worst dictator Ghana has ever seen. "Because he guided Ghana to become the first black African country to gain independence in 1957, it may be safe to say that later dictators on the continent learnt from his book of political tyranny. He set the stage and record for one-party dictatorship, personality cult, ruthless suppression of political opponents, detention without trial, paranoia, grandiose projects, economic mismanagement and election rigging. "Africa has produced many crazy dictators but none of them ever dreamt of turning into a one-man electoral commission like Nkrumah. In a yet-to-be-broken record in the continent, the late Ghanaian leader 'elected' an entire parliament of 198 MPs single-handedly within minutes. "The moment of history was June 1965, when a Nkrumah-weary Ghana was poised for elections. On the morning of polling day, the Osagyefo ("Redeemer") as Nkrumah was fondly known, entered the national radio station to announce there would be no election. He proceeded to read the names of those he had selected to become MPs and the areas they represented. "It was a fait accompli - the actions of a man who loved and worked to obtain absolute power. The move was inspired by Nkrumah's deep fear that his enemies would win the elections, though Ghana was a one-party state at his beck and call. "Ironically, Nkrumah performed the civilian coup despite the fact that he was in firm control and could easily decide who goes to parliament from behind the scenes. He did not need to be this crude and rash. "Right from Ghana's independence on March 5, 1957, Nkrumah made it clear he wanted to be an unchallenged dictator. He wasted no time in introducing measures meant to concentrate absolute power in his hands. "In the year of independence, he masterminded the enactment of the Deportation Act, which empowered him to kick-out anybody whose presence in Ghana he considered detrimental. A year later, the Preventive Detention Act followed to check the growing strength of the opposition alliance. The Act allowed Nkrumah to detain without trial anybody suspected of engaging in anti-state activities for five years or longer. "By the time he was kicked out of power in 1966, it is estimated that at least 1,000 Ghanaians had been detained under the Act. The detainees included one of Nkrumah's most prominent opponents, Joseph Danquah. The lawyer politician who came second to Nkrumah in Ghana's presidential election in 1960 died in detention in 1965. "When Ghana became a republic in 1960, the hitherto Prime Minister Nkrumah became President with unbridled power. He made sure the constitution gave him the mandate to rule by decree. He formed an intricate network of spies to keep tabs on his real or imagined enemies. "In January 1964, Nkrumah contrived a special plebiscite to consign his opponents to the political wilderness. The referendum was to decide two major issues. The first was whether the country should become a one-party state under Nkrumah's ruling Convention Peoples Party. The second was to grant or deny Nkrumah powers to sack judges. After massive rigging and manipulation, the "Yes" vote narrowly carried the day. "Fresh from the stolen victory, Nkrumah flexed his muscles by sacking the Chief Justice who had acquitted his opponents in a treason trial. He then made himself life president though he was by then presiding over a tottering economy and a country where human rights abuses were rife. "After entrenching himself in power in the 1960s, Nkrumah seemed to have lost touch with the realities in Ghana. He preferred to pursue grand Pan-African schemes and paid little attention to the deep discontent in Ghana. Some of his close advisers even said he did not care about Ghanaians' suffering. "By this time, he had cemented his position and felt safe in power. "It was virtually impossible to remove Nkrumah from power by any means, as he had blocked all avenues. "However, he opened a weak chink in his armour when he ordered the military to undertake regular exercises in preparation for a war against the then white-ruled Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). "On the morning of February 24, the soldiers seized Accra and prepared themselves to fight a civil war if Nkrumah loyalists in the military resisted the coup. The resistance never came as jubilant Ghanaians celebrated the fall of a ruthless dictator who had traumatised them for nine years. "Despite his high intellect, Nkrumah's major weaknesses were paranoia and his love for flattery and quislings. This made it easy for him to be misled by court poets, sycophants, wheeler-dealers and influence peddlers. That is why he hand-picked socialist acolytes to top positions in the private and public sector. The appointees, most of them with shady backgrounds viewed their positions as a licence to loot and proceeded accordingly. Some of his loyalists used the detention law to arrest innocent people so they could inherit their business, wealth or positions. "He embarked on lavish spending on parlous and grandiose ventures that bankrupted Ghana, one of the richest African countries at independence. He nationalised most commercial, agricultural, mining and industrial activities in Ghana. "At independence, Ghana was one of the wealthiest and economically advanced colonies in Africa. But Nkrumah's penchant for grandiose projects, corruption, mismanagement and desire for rapid industrialisation brought economic ruin to the country." Adding anything to this would be totally superfluous. BY NEVANJI MADANHIRE

Thread starter JohnShao
Start date May 6, 2010

JohnShao

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Kwame Nkrumah, The Other Side

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