Many thanks, Opanin Akwasi Prempeh - for your riposte to the outrageous article entitled: "CPP: Still a Copycat Party at 59" penned by "Professor" Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, and posted on Ghanaweb's news page of 21st June 2008.
Why on earth some Ghanaians choose to falsify our history so, is hard to fathom. Yet, the story of our country's struggle for independence, is a simple and straight forward one - that need confuse none but the intellectually bankrupt.
For, the choice which ordinary people faced at the dawn of independence, was a clear one: whom to entrust the government of the post-colonial independence era, to: because they were the most capable of bringing about the kind of social transformation that was sorely needed, in order to create a more just and equitable society, to replace the unjust and racist one, which the exploitative British colonialists had foisted on them.
The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) offered ordinary people, a vision of a united and modern African society, in which the wealth of the nation, would be used to ensure a decent standard of living, for all the people, irrespective of their tribal extraction; their religion; or their social background.
They wanted to ensure that the fruits of independence did not end up benefiting only "a powerful few, with greedy ambitions" (to quote Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's founding father): at the expense of the rest of society.
The opposition to the CPP then, which consisted mostly of the descendants of the pre-colonial feudal elites, under the banner of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), wanted the new nation-state of the post-colonial era to be as close a political model, to the pre-colonial feudal system, as they could possibly get away with: naturally with them firmly in the driving seat - and literally lording it over ordinary people, till the very end of time!
Incidentally, dear reader, their political progeny today, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), have ruled our homeland Ghana for seven disastrous years, thus far, since January 2001 - a truly wretched period for ordinary Ghanaians.
A hellish period, during which their quality of life has steadily deteriorated, whiles across the nation they see huge disparities in wealth opening up (as never before in their country!), right before their very eyes' - as politically well-connected influence peddlers boldly enrich themselves, at mother Ghana's expense!
But I digress! In short, those who opposed the CPP during the fight for independence, not only aligned themselves with the colonial oppressors, but clearly wanted a society in which some were more equal than others: and wanted voting rights to be restricted only to property owners and wage-earners: the true origins and meaning, dear reader, of the deceptive NPP slogan: "property-owning democracy"!
Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, on the other hand, insisted that the new nation's democratic system be underpinned by universal adult suffrage. And ordinary people duly rewarded the CPP for ensuring that in the new nation-state, of the post-colonial era, all adult citizens would have the inalienable right to elect their leaders!
Because its positive message of hope so resonated with ordinary people, the CPP was able to trounce its tribalistic and narrow-minded opponents, in subsequent elections: in 1951, 1954 and 1958 - increasing its parliamentary majority on each occasion!
Had the opposition succeeded in defeating the CPP, it would have led to the intolerable situation, in which those born into certain family clans, would be a permanent part of the ruling elite in the new nation: which would, ideally for them, simply be a loose federation made up of tribal "mini-states".
And thus ordinary people would have been condemned to an existence in the newly-independent nation, more or less akin to that of feudal-era serfs: living under the ham-fisted tyranny, of mostly long-discredited, hide-bound and calcified Chiefdoms, which had existed in the pre-colonial feudal era - and which had so lacked sophistication and wisdom, that foreigners from thousands of miles across the oceans, eventually succeeded in colonising them.
And thus would ordinary people, dear reader, have forever become slaves in the post-colonial era: and for no reason other than that an accident of birth, had meant that they had not been born into particular pre-ordained ruling family clans.
Yet, even the smallest primary school-going children in Ghana today, will tell you, Opanin, that the greatest enemy of any meritocracy, is inherited privilege.
Are you surprised then, that a buffoon with such a poor grasp of Ghanaian history (and command of the English language!), can walk around with his head held high, and call himself a "professor" of English? He actually believes he is a superior being - the poor man. Incredible!
Yet, how his ilk have blossomed and thrived, under what has turned out to be the most tribalistic regime Ghana has ever had!Let all us pray that God saves our nation from inbred fools - particularly on election day, this December! Amen.
So you see, Opanin, it is not such an arduous task, working out precisely what motivates the writing of such buffoons - and incidentally nothing irritates even simple Nkrumaists like me, more than the fact that he thinks his dreadful English, actually impresses anyone in Ghana.
(English, which incidentally, is so dreadful, that were he to submit any of his articles to any newspaper in the UK or the US, they would be thrown straight into the waste paper basket - and be dismissed as consisting of nothing more than unintelligible babble: which none of their readers would ever be able to decipher!)
Let him and those of his ilk continue to attempt to rewrite our history - and show decent and fair-minded Ghanaians, the extent of the degree of intellectual dishonesty those totally bankrupt minds, are capable of indulging in: and the depths to which they are prepared to sink.
They are simply beyond the pale - and the uncharitable amongst us will simply continue to respond to them with one word only: "Imbeciles!"
Which brings me to the subject of the purchase by the government of Ghana of the 10% shares of ALCOA, in VALCO - which leaves Ghana in complete control of an asset which will never be a going concern, in a nation which has succeeded in getting itself into an energy mess, of gargantuan proportions: because of the incompetence and lack of foresight, of some of its self-seeking leaders!
And typically, the regime's mercenary praise singers in the media have been quickly mobilised. And the usual knee-jerk reacton is at play: and we are seeing yet another example of a classic NPP "Alice-in-wonderland" mess, dressed up by spin doctors, to look like some a kind of a national triumph.
However, if one peers through and sees beyond the "smoke-and-mirrors" praise-singing, nothing but failure stares one in the face. Failure that George Orwell-style Animal Farm propaganda will seek to present to ordinary Ghanaians, as a world class achievement. Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!
So, what then, pray, is the real truth behind the glossy picture we are being presented with? Well, ALCOA, like Kaiser Aluminium before it, dear reader, simply isn't prepared any longer to throw good money after bad - and watch it disappear down the financial equivalent, of a black hole, in an energy-challenged Ghana.
They have built a spanking new aluminium smelter in Iceland - where, if you dig far enough into the earth, you can tap virtually free geothermal energy (from underground hot springs!) to power an aluminium smelting plant, virtually for zilch cents per kilowatt hour.
One only has to work out how much that means, in terms of putting them in the happy and fortunate position, which VALCO was, when it had access to abundant and cheap hydro power, in the early 1960's Ghana, of the visionary Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
They simply have no time to waste in a country with a crippling and Byzantine system - and under the iron grip of a few powerful and greedy rogues: where "voodoo economics" rules OK!
And in the meantime patriotic Ghanaians (above all our unimaginative opposition politicians!) must be on the lookout to ensure that VALCO is not secretly asset-stripped, by the super-clever rogues, amongst our current leaders - whose unfathomable greed leads them to attempt to grab every valuable state asset in sight: Using the legal equivalent of a sleight of hand to take them over, overnight. Literally. Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!
May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!
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