Ghana’s Independence Had Many Midwives & Fathers. Enough!

“When independence was achieved the CPP had not been formed. The inauguration of independence took place when CPP was in power, but the priest who baptizes a child is not by any chance the child’s parents.” (Dr. JB Danquah, January 1960). Going forward I would want readers to focus on the above quotation, against the background that followed the riots of February 28, 1948, when Sergeant Adjetey and other gallant ex-servicemen were cowardly massacred by the colonial government. The Watson Commission which was set up to investigate the underlying embers, agitation and attendant riots that led to that fateful day, recommended that the people of Ghana were fit to achieve independence within ten years. Within 10 years, which coincided with March 6, 1957, on the anniversary of the signing of the Bond of 1884 which formally incorporated the then Gold Coast as a Crown colony. The implied notions to bear in mind here is that when Kwame Nkrumah arrived on the scene from abroad, there was a road map in place, the subsequent legislative consultative assembly elections that were to follow, starting in 1951 were nothing short of the last laps around the bend to herald and usher us into statehood. Here again, readers should bear in mind that our impending drive to independence and statehood was never in doubt by any shred of opinion when Nkrumah burst on the scene. By 1951 all that remained to be done was the type of government we were to emerge under at independence, as a federation or unitary form of government. That was what all the then political squabbles were about, and to his credit Nkrumah’s articulation for a unitary form of government won the day.

By Eric Kwesi Bottah