Former President John Mahama
There is no letup to the angst of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the reversal of July 1 from a public holiday to a commemorative one as directed by the Akufo-Addo government.
They have announced that should they come to power after next year’s polls, they will reverse the status of the day.
Yesterday being July 1, 59 years after the country’s attainment of a republican status suggesting the total withdrawal of British rule, opened the floodgates for a litany of whining from both the NDC and former President John Mahama.
It would be recalled that government through Parliament integrated the July 1 holiday into one dubbed: “Founders’ Day” – a move which sparked public debate over whether or not Ghana has a sole founder or founders.
NDC Statement
The NDC in a statement rekindled the subject of Kwame Nkrumah being in their view the sole founder of the country.
The party bemoaned what in their view is the marginalization of the role of Kwame Nkrumah in solely achieving independence for the country and “degrading the importance of this great day from a full public holiday intended to celebrate the efforts of our forebears in our collective struggle to affirm the benefits of equality, liberty, freedom and justice, to a mere commemorative day in order to rob our gallant forbears the historical credit and recognition that they so richly deserve.”
The NDC recalled criticizing President Akufo-Addo for as they put it “rewriting the history of Ghana, downplaying the role of genuine patriots and placing his family and clan above all else.”
Mahama’s Facebook Post
In a coordinated effort, the former President in a Facebook post regretted that President Akufo-Addo has revised the Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019, (Act 989).
“Sadly, this significant page in our history has been revised by the Akufo-Addo administration through the recent Public Holidays (Amendment) Act 2019, (Act 989).
“By this act, the NPP government has expunged the Republic Day commemorated as ‘Senior Citizens Day’ from the list of holidays and replaced ‘with a questionable founders’ day holiday on August 4th,” he said.
The fire stoked by the denial of Ghana founded by a group of citizens of this country and not a sole personality will persist for a long time. While the likes of the NDC and former President John Mahama will regard those who oppose this footnote of history and describe them as revisionists of history, their antagonists will shrug them as peddlers of mendacity to suit their parochial interests.
By A.R. Gomda