Attoh Quarshie photo: Daily Graphic
A founding member of the United Party(UP), which gave birth to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Joshua Attoh Quarshie has waded into the founder’s debate, arguing it is disgraceful referring to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as the founder of Ghana.
In a one-on-one interview with TV3’s Johnny Huges, the veteran politician said Kwame Nkrumah should not even be mentioned among those who fought for the independence of Ghana.
“It’s a disgrace to mention Kwame Nkrumah [among founders] because he had no contribution on the constitution to serve government,” he asserted.
For him it is Paa Grant who founded Ghana because according to him Paa Grant mobilized all the others, including J.B Danquah and Kwame Nkrumah, to initiate the fight for independence.
He was quick to add that it was J.B Danquah who researched into the origin of the name “Ghana”. He added the struggle for independence was championed by Paa Grant, J.B Danquah and Obetsebi Lamptey in that particular order.
Narrating the history of political activism in Ghana, Joshua Attoh Quarshie said there is no debate about the fact that Paa Grant deserves all the credit for gathering resourceful personalities to fight for independence.
He narrates, “The story is one and one alone, only that we Ghanaians don’t want to talk the truth. There was a great man in this country whom the whole nation must bow down before him by the name Paa Grant. How he gathered the inspiration to gather people from the West to the North, from the South to the East, only God knows”
He said he was surprised that the name Paa Grant hardly comes up as a founder when the country celebrates founder’s day. He feels Ghanaians are not being bold enough.
He wondered: “He gathered all the prominent people politically, socially, in the country to come together to fight for one front. And I’m so surprised that every year we talk about founding day, [this and that] and people are not being bold to talk about this Paa Grant. I wonder why.”
He called out the intellectuals and historians in the country and described them as “cowards”. He maintained that the written history of Ghana is misleading because the aged in the country will bear witness to the fact that Paa Grant was the only founder of Ghana, as such it is wrong to celebrate Nkrumah as the founder of Ghana.
EVIDENCE-BASED
Touching on governance and transparency, the veteran politician said the British training bequeathed from the colonial regime delivered justice better and more transparently than the present day evidence-based prosecution system.
He expressed disappointment in the NPP government saying “the Akufo-Addo I was expecting to discharge something better for the nation has failed completely.
Attoh Quarshie disagreed that it’s early days yet to pass judgement on the NPP government which is just 8 months old in office.
By P.D Wedam |3news.com |Ghana
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS