Opinions of Thursday, 11 August 2022
Columnist: Nana Osei Boateng
On the matter of Founders Day celebration on 4th August, Kwesi Pratt is on record to have opined that J.B Danquah needs not to be celebrated for any sort of contribution to the independence of Ghana.
He based his arguments on several non-founded points over the years. His recent arguments are worth nothing intellectually and must be properly scrutinized.
Kwesi’s rundown of Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah is all aimed at making him less popular so Kwame Nkrumah will be spoken off as the sole person who owes the eulogies with respect to our independence. Nkrumah’s actions towards independence are well acknowledged by Ghanaians and the world. Why can’t JB Danquah’s toil be recognized by our history too? It is sheer enmity for his persona and perhaps his origin.
The fact that Kwesi knows so well that if JB is not run down, Nkrumah’s popularity may dwindle tells you how important JB Danquah is to the rise of this country. Talk of Paa Grant, Ako Adjei who brought Nkrumah back to Ghana, and all the six men involved in the formation of the first political party to rival colonialism.
Why can’t people with simple heads and brains acknowledge that these men worked too but always make it difficult for our history to accept the truth? Mandela is popular and eulogized worldwide but he has always given credit to the men who went to prison with him, counseled him, and his wife who fought with him.
Kwesi Pratt says JB Danquah deserves no accolades because he wasn’t popular and that he couldn’t win a seat in his hometown. This is crassness in the lowest pit. Which election did Dr.Paa Grant win, the ex-servicemen won no elections and of course the chiefs who fought won none?
If it was elections that made people worth celebrating then Kwesi Pratt deserves no attention, no right to speak on political issues, and never to write any publishing material because he lost miserably in 1996 when he contested to be parliamentarian.
Ghana will forever celebrate the deserving, Anyone can keep their misgivings in them but we will still celebrate our Heroes.
God Bless Ghana And All Her Founding Heroes.