There's Only One Republic: - The Republic Of Ghana

The making of the nation, Ghana, has been interesting. The days leading to March 6, 2007, the 50th anniversary of the birth of the nation Ghana has been very educational for me and perhaps, many others. I was exactly 8 years and 7 months old on March 6, 1957 having been born on August 6, 1948. Like many, I knew very little about what went on before that fateful day.

Naturally, therefore, what I have learnt about Ghana has been from books and as we all know, many historians present a one-sided picture. They tell their stories from the prizm of their lenses that captures the waves they allow in based on their very prejudices, and prejudices we all have. I was barely eighteen years old when on February 24, 1966 the first President was deposed. I remember, at least in my immediate domain, the instantaneous expression of joy, but I could not readily put my finger on why so many people were so jubilant. I did not partake in any such display of joy. I had no reason to. Nkrumah had done me no wrong personally and I did not know any individual that he had offended. In 1966, I was in Form 4 at Prempeh College on a Cocoa Marketing Board scholarship. I had one year and four months left to complete Form 5. I remember my biggest worry when I heard the news of his overthrow. My worry was if I and others I knew at Prempeh would lose our financial assistance. That was my biggest worry because there is no way I could have entered Prempeh College without that scholarship, let alone complete it.. I and many like me are eternally grateful to Kwame Nkrumah for that alone, if for nothing else. Luckily, most things remained relatively normal at school at least, thank goodness.
The various writings about the days preceding and after independence that I have read on this site have brought a lot of the incoherent and hazy murmurings I had previously heard into focus. For one, I’m older and possibly wiser and I can therefore understand why people do what they do when they do it without having to be so judgmental. JB Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah, Kofi Abrefa Busia and all those pre and post independence heroes have played their own parts in making Ghana what it is today, good, bad or indifferent. Of course, each one of these people would write his own stories from his own points of view. The same history, the same story could be told and the difference would be like night and day. I understand that too. So, it does not surprise me that onlookers like us and later generations would have their own versions of the same events or the various interpretations of the same events as we have seen here on this website.
Without belabouring the point, we have seen many Governments formed and dissolved by coups since Nkrumah’s overthrow. Every time we return to constitutional rule, we assign an adjective to the previous one. Nkrumah’s Ghana was the first Republic which is marked on July 1, 1960. Busia’s 1969 Parliament marked the second Republic. Then came Linman’s 3rd and Rawlings’ 1992 Constitution marking the 4th Republic. Politicians and academicians have tried to distinguish these events and times in our history by calling them the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Republics. But this nation has one history and not four. The stories may be told differently, but we cannot deny that we have one history. The periods may be different to, but it is one continuous story, not four. Ironically, no matter what Government has been in power, and no matter which Republic, this country has always celebrated the Republic day on July 1. So, I wonder why we still refer to the various “republics” when we discuss our history.
In my mind, references to the four republics or incidences in our history bring bad memories and they affect our psyche negatively. They divide us. We need unity of purpose to move this nation forward. We have demonstrated, at least on two occasions, that we can unite around our national flag when we have to. The world cup soccer games showed us the way. The 50th Independence Anniversary has also shown us that we can come together if and when we have to. Let us continue in that spirit in our thoughts, our workplaces, our businesses and our daily lives. Let us put aside all the emotions that the names JB Danquah, Nkrumah, Busia, Rawlings and even Kufuor evoke. Those negative emotions steal our concentration and retard our progress. Let us resolve today to be one nation, one people with one common destiny; one Republic- the Republic of Ghana.

Ken Ntiamoa
Toronto
[email protected]

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.