Kwame Nkrumah Inspired Citizens Movement Celebrates A Hero 105 Years On


Today is the 21st of September 2014. 105 years ago on the 21st of September 1909, a hero was born for Africa. He was named Kwame Nkrumah who grew up to become the greatest African of the Millennium whose footprints are all over the world.

As members of Kwame Nkrumah Inspired Citizens Movement who takes inspiration from the life and legacies of this great African, we join in the celebration of our all time hero; very intelligent, bold, decisive and a man who worked with fortitude.

As Head of State and President of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah chalked remarkable successes in championing the development of a post colonial nation and continent. The magnificent Akosombo dam, the Tema Motorway, the Jute Factory, the Cattle Ranch, the Glass Factory, the Tema Township, the Ghana Telecommunication Company, the Asutware Sugar Factory, the Bank of Ghana, the Komenda Sugar Factory, the Tema Oil Refinery, the Kumasi Shoe factory and a hundred more, were brought about by his vision.

As a committed African, Nkrumah worked to see the unity of the continent. Having studied the models of the USA and the UK, he was poised to adopt a consensus building governance system by bring together African leaders towards the establishment of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) now Africa Union (AU). He brought on board very strategic leaders across the continent to deliberate and to device modalities for adoption for the unity of the continent.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, prior to his overthrow by the CIA with its Ghanaians collaborators, put together a team to birth a strategic plan towards the development of Ghana his beloved country. The birth of that team was named the Ghana Seven Year Development Plan. That plan was adopted in the year 1964 after it was laid before parliament. The book was to see to the economic transformation of Ghana after the attainment of Political Independence. The book was implemented between 1964 and 1966 when he was overthrown and was abandoned afterwards.

He captured in his forward message to the Seven Year Development Plan “Our aim is to establish in Ghana a strong

progressive society in which no one will have the anxiety about the basic needs of life, about work, food and shelter; where poverty and illiteracy no longer exist and disease is brought under control; and where our educational facilities provide all the children of Ghana with the best possible opportunities

for the development of their potentialities. The material basis for a socialist society can only be created by the labour of its people. This requires the highest sense of dedication on the part of all within the society. In working for the economic and social

reconstruction of Ghana, we must see to it that the fruits of the people’s labour shall belong to them, not to any class of exploiters. But first of all we must create the wealth. The only way to build up the national wealth is to maintain a maximum rate of

productive investment in industry and agriculture”. The fundamental issues that the plan sought to address are still present with us today.

The overthrown of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah stalled our economic transformational plans laid out meticulously in the Plan as soon as the blue print was abandoned. That was the genesis of our economic challenges which we face today. An economy that has no proper foundation cannot develop as expected. No matter what is done, the fundamentals would rear its head and swallow any gains that may manifest.

Since then, government after government had not had the desire and will to re-look at the plan that was to lay a solid foundation for this country. Instead, intermittent plans were developed and sought to be implemented to lift Ghana from the economic quagmire that are faced from time to time. That has indeed brought us no where over the years.

It must be pointed out that, the Seven Year Development plan still has a minimum of five years left undone. There are major deliverables in that documents that we can focus on if we are indeed for the economic development of this country. If Ghana must work and be seen to be working well, the Seven Year Development Plan must be the foundation upon which Ghana’s economic development must stand.

The Movement would like to urge all Ghanaians and Africans as a whole to take a lesson from the selflessness of Kwame Nkrumah and to work towards the collective good of the masses of our people.

Signed:………….­…….
Stephen Kwabena Attuh
(National Secretary, Kwame Nkrumah Inspired Citizens Movement)

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