Hon Madam Deputy Speaker and hon Members of Parliament, Ghana is this pioneering country, championing not only her independence, but blazing the lonely trail, so to say, for the emancipation of other African countries that were to follow, for the realisation of the total liberation of the continent of Africa is indeed an historic event never to be rewritten in a different way.
Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, has, like many of us on this African continent, a long and painful litany of colonial history and blatant if not brutal political economic oppression, let alone the degradation of a people by those who are powerful.
In the entire human history, there cannot be any people who would take kindly to their conquest and subjugation, even if they are less ready to retaliate against their victors or enslavers.
The vision and mere yearning for one's freedom is the basic ingredient of a people to claim back their freedom, dignity and humanity seized by stealth or might of conquerors. Colonialism ignored the foregoing reality of human history or arrogantly thought that their happy captives were incapable of such aspirations as those that beat in the hearts of all and any freedom-loving people and this is a note that we should take when we wield power.
The first spark of conquers for freedom, in my view, was lit in the 1806 Ashanti-Fante War, which led the Fante to abandon their allegiance to the Ashanti in favour of the British; thus the element of colonial divide and rule was brought into play. This of course set in a motion of a long series of wars, in which the Ashanti tried to ward off or minimise European power in their region.
From 1826 to the 1900s, the British fought a series of wars and campaigns against the Ashanti region. By the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s, all the regions in and around the Gold Coast were consolidated, heralding in the 1956 UN plebiscite that they, these territories, become part of Ghana when the Gold Coast achieved independence, the wind of change.
The new constitution of April 29, 1954 established a Cabinet of African Ministers drawn from all African legislatures chosen by direct election. This is when Kwame Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, the CCP, won the majority of seats in the new legislative assembly.
Two years later, Prime Minister Nkrumah's Gold Coast government issued a White Paper categorically proposing for the then Gold Coast's independence. The British government agreed to this proposal. By March 6, 1957, Ghana became independent to inspire a strong flame and desire for freedom on the entire continent. Nkrumah was now hailed as Osagyefo, the victorious leader. Even we, then up and coming and young lovers of freedom and democracy down south, saw Ghana as a star of hope, a clarion call to break the chains of bondage.
This era, like eras of the dawn of freedom, had its good and bad sides. There was a quest to achieve and develop Ghana into a modern, semi- industrialised unitary state. This quest in itself set in motion the seeds of tension and dissent, not that dissent should be treasonable in democracy. The Convention People's Party's control was challenged and criticised. The outcome of these challenges was the provision of detention without trial for five years and later for 10 years. It all sounds very familiar. Apartheid, the Zanu PF regime in Zimbabwe, Darfur, etc, the abuse of power, politely put, the arrogance of power.
In 1961 a new constitution was adopted transforming the parliamentary system to a republican form of government headed by the powerful President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Like suppression or oppression always breeding resentment and strife, the Ghanaian army and police toppled Nkrumah's regime as, it is said assisted by the CIA. Nkrumah was accused of flagrant abuse of individual rights and liberties, corruption, dictatorial practices, coupled with the deteriorating economy. Sounds very familiar again and very close to us. How and why on earth was the star of hope to fade this way? This fateful day of 24 February 1966 was indeed a blot on the inspiring star of Africa. The rest is history, as they say.
Ghana and Africa as a whole, including the freedom-loving people of the world, have every legitimate right to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the independence of Ghana, if for anything but to rekindle that celestial star of Africa, to rise and shine once more, to pave the way forward to African unity and the overall renewal now manifesting itself as the African Renaissance, with its trust in Nepad and related endeavours, to embrace the entire continent and to take its rightful place among nations of the world.
Those who cannot learn from their own mistakes, selfishly or arrogantly are inviting peril. We congratulate, however, the pioneering spirit of Ghana and the people of Ghana and wish them well.
Last, but not least, an emerging democracy such as ours, South Africa, should avoid the retrogressive tendencies and pitfalls that the star of Africa, Ghana fell into. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]