The truth that Tsikata and Rawlings were protégés of Ankrah and Harlley—local assets of the CIA—cannot be dismissed. This reality is reflected in how both the NLC/PP and the (P)NDC/NPP political traditions have managed Ghana’s political economy in ways that ultimately benefit the United States, its NATO allies, and apartheid Israel, often at the expense of the wider Ghanaian society. Are the commanding heights of our national economy not dominated by companies originating from the very nations whose intelligence and security networks collaborated to undermine and overthrow the Nkrumah government on 24 February 1966?
The truth hurts because the betrayal by Eric Otoo, Afrifa, Ocran, Kotoka, Harlley, Deku, and Ankrah was not driven by tribalism but by class interest and class preservation. This affirms Nkrumah’s assertion in Class Struggle in Africa—that class contradictions on the continent are real and must be confronted.
To liberate Africa from the grip of neoliberalism and neocolonialism, we must speak truth to power, just as Dr. Amílcar Cabral did at Nkrumah’s funeral in Conakry on 13 May 1972, when he declared that the Osagyefo was destroyed by the cancer of betrayal.
What deepens the pain is June Milne’s recollection: she once asked Nkrumah in Conakry about the troubling coincidence of Harlley, Deku, and Kotoka. Nkrumah replied that he himself had appointed them to positions of trust.
The truth hurts—but it must be told.
© Addai-Sebo
23 February 2026
