The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has commissioned the renovated and modernised Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, a year after the sod was cut for the commencement of work on the project.
The Park, which was built in 1991 and opened to the public in 1992, had not seen any renovation since then, resulting in significant deterioration.
President Akufo-Addo instructed the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, to temporarily close the Park for renovation to be undertaken. The Park has been completely modernised to befit the status of the final resting place of Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence in 1957 and became the country’s first President.
The Park now has facilities including a presidential library, receptive facility, mini-amphitheater, restaurant, freedom wall, and a digitalised payment and access system. The mausoleum has also been fully refurbished, with the tombstone upgraded, and the museum expanded with an audiovisual tunnel. The VVIP lounge has been upgraded, and there is an expanded recreational area, a modernised gift shop, and a fountain area with synchronised audiovisuals, the first of its kind in West Africa.
The thirty million cedi (GH¢30million) modernised Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park is in line with plans by the Government to make the Park one of the best tourism and heritage attractions in West Africa.
As the outstanding pan-Africanist of his generation, the burial site of Dr. Nkrumah must be appropriate to his status and exceptional contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism.
By Vincent Kubi