The National Chairman of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has said the new NDC government will scrap the Founders’ Day celebration, which is celebrated on August 4 every year since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to power.
He made a suggestion that the party may designate September 21—the birthdate of Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah—as Founder’s Day in place of the current Founders’ Day. Speaking during the big durbar ‘Journey to Nkroful’ to honor Osagyefo’s birthday and legacy, Asiedu Nketiah claimed the current government’s changes are inappropriate. He reaffirmed the NDC’s commitment to enacting reform if they win back power.
“I want to reemphasize that if we come to power, that 4th August that they want us to celebrate as founders’ day has no basis in our history and it would be one of the first holidays to be abolished.
“And in it’s place, we will institute Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday as the founder’s day so that we’ll meet to celebrate founder’s day and not Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday,” he reemphasised.
He reassured the crowd that he had evidence showing that the UGCC, whose founding date the NPP wants to use to honor the Big Six instead of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, collapsed six years before Ghana’s independence and cannot, therefore, be credited as the party that assisted in the formation of the country Ghana.
“If anyone gets to any of the radio stations to challenge what I’ve said here, call me and I’ll come and prove to the person with documents that were used to solicit for funds at the founding stage to form the UGCC. I have a copy and I can show it to the person” adding that, Paa Grant, a native of Axim and an Nzema, made the elephant share of the contribution, and if for anything at all, they (Nzemas) should be regarded as the pinaccle of Ghana’s history if any such divisions was to be made in telling which people contributed most in making Ghana.
“I heard someone saying Ghana’s history cannot be written without the Akyems. It is true because the history of the country is for us all so we cannot take anyone out.
“But to make it look like the history of Ghana is just about the history of the contribution of the Akyem intellectuals is intellectually dishonest. It is not true because the UGCC and CPP are all rooted in Nzema so if anybody could claim such right about Ghana’s history, it should be excused for the Nzemas,” he was emphatic.
