Madam Deputy Speaker, the uniqueness of Ghana's independence is that it was the product of Pan-Africanism, which triumphed at the fifth Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945. That congress took this resilient African political philosophy home to Africa. Pan-Africanism passed the revolutionary test, and gave classical colonialism in Africa a knockout.
Ghana, through Dr Kwame Nkrumah, spearheaded the freedom movement of Africa. He had, on 6 March 1957, declared that Ghana's independence was nothing unless it was linked up to the total liberation of Africa. Nkrumah firmly held that political power is meaningless without economic power. He said: "In planning national development, the constant fundamental principle is the need for economic independence."
When the imperialists and their agents overthrew Nkrumah on 24 February 1966, he had established 68 sprawling state-owned factories producing every need of the Ghanaian people. There was free education, and medical services, which made Ghana the pride of a liberated African country. The treacherous coup against Ghana was aimed at destroying true African independence and economic liberation. The traitors and their masters who overthrew Nkrumah have serious lessons for us: Never again must Africans sell their interests and future for peanuts in order to serve the interests of the former colonial masters. Izwe lethu! [Our land!] [Applause.]