JB Danquah’s Letter To Nkrumah 19…..(3)

Many weeks have elapsed since I started presenting records of Dr. JB Danquah’s incarceration courtesy the Commission of Inquiry empanelled by the National Liberation Council following the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah’s government.

The incarceration ordered by Kwame Nkrumah was hinged on apprehension or even perception by the President that Dr. JB Danquah posed a threat to his government.

The man described as a doyen of local politics, Dr. JB Danquah even before his incarceration sent a correspondence to President Kwame Nkrumah seeking to correct facts which for him were erroneous details of the country’s history about which we alluded to in an earlier presentation.

As stated in a previous edition these corrections appeared to have sent disturbing signals to the President.

Dr. JB Danquah was definitely on the radar of national security and with the President becoming increasingly paranoid, it did not take long for the security operatives to arrest him and eventually take him to prison.

There are many literatures worth reading about Dr. JB Danquah’s thoughts about Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah. I am not yet done with the presentations of these which in my view would deepen our knowledge of this segment of the history of this country.

History can hardly be devoid of divisiveness. I would not be surprised therefore when in their critiques of Dr. JB Danquah’s thoughts, apologetics of Kwame Nkrumah and of course those who would seek to justify the maltreatment of Dr. JB Danquah and his subsequent death in prison present counter positions. And why not?

The good thing however is that most of the presentations under this heading are proceedings from the Commission of Inquiry when witnesses appeared to give their testimonies.

Of course, developments in history especially their presentations are open to individual interpretations. These make for healthy academic debates.

The following constitute the conclusion of one of the many letters of Dr. JB Danquah to President Kwame Nkrumah.

Subsequent letters would be different tone generally about prison life and how he would prefer freedom which the President denied him though.

By A.R. Gomda

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