August 4 does not merit a holiday – NDC

The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) says 4 August, a day set aside as a public holiday by the Akufo-Addo-led administration does not merit a holiday and a future NDC government will cancel it.

The 4th August holiday called the Founders' Day replaced the Founder's Day that was celebrated in honour of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

The NDC in a statement signed by Director of Communications, Mr Kakra Essamuah said: “The only reason advanced for this law, passed by the NPP-dominated Parliament of Ghana, was that it was on 4th August, 1947, that the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was set up as a political party.

“The reason behind the August 4 commemoration is that President Akufo-Addo wants Ghanaians to remember the formation of UGCC because his grand-uncle, Dr. J. B. Danquah, his uncle, Mr. William Ofori-Atta, and his father, Mr. Edward Akufo-Addo were foundation members.”

The statement noted that: “As ridiculous as this may seem, it is as clear as daylight that underlying this is President Akufo-Addo's penchant to glorify his family for which reason he seeks to revise the history of Ghana at each and every opportunity.

“President Akufo-Addo's insistence on foisting on Ghanaians the slender historical contributions of his relatives towards the struggle for the attainment of independence, as compared to the heroic contributions of the much-venerated Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of blessed memory, can only be equated to the behaviour of megalomaniac power-drunk rulers of old.

“Together with the generality of all Ghanaians, the National Democratic Congress condemns in no uncertain terms, this blatant misuse of Parliamentary majority for the wanton indulgence of the current occupant of Jubilee House.”

The NDC assured Ghanaians that August 4 will be expunged “from our statute books as a public holiday as soon as the NDC assumes the reigns of government in January 2021. We will waste no time to rid our country of vestiges of historical revisionism and the ethnic and clannish bigotry that comes with it.”