“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to remain a child’’- Cicero, a Roman Speaker.
Exactly 48 years ago, Osagyefo’s Ghana experienced the darkest day in her life. The sun became angry and refused to shine and the morning stars became dark. Our forefathers waited for the daylight in vain and did not see the rays of dawn.
This was the day that some dissident and rebellious army and police overthrew the democratically elected government of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Like Job said, “may those who curse days curse that day-24th February, 1966.
In schools, Teachers and professors who were anti-Nkrumah were lecturing against Nkrumah’s communist leanings. Some Christian preachers painted him as Godless and criticized him for using the name Osagyefo.Today, the paramount chief of Akyem- Abuakwa uses the name Osagyefo and nobody is complaining. Ghana’s educated elites like Dr. J.B. Danquah and Professor Kofi Busia raised in the image of the British nobility, saw it as their duty to give the country back the woman with the scalded skin (British queen) and the Westminster palace
The whole chronicle of the overthrow the government of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah lies in the secret files of the obscure intelligence outfits of foreign governments which desire to keep and develop their interests in fiefdoms in Africa. Trickles of information reveal the conspiracy theory of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States, the Military Intelligence Section 5 of the United Kingdom and the French government to cause the overthrow.
John Stockwell, a Central Intelligence renegade in his memoir ‘IN SEARCH OF ENEMIES:A CIA STORY in 1978, revealed how agents within Ghana military and police were bribed to effect the coup. The price of cocoa which was the highest foreign exchange earner for Ghana fell. Aid and financial credit to Ghana were withheld. Declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency provide undeniable evidence of the United States government involvement in the 1966 coup.
According to these documents, dissidents in the army were given generous resources for the purpose of gathering intelligence on their activities. On May 27,1965, Robert W. Komer, a National Security Council staffer briefed his boss, McGeorge Bundy, president Johnson’s special assistant for national security affairs on the anti-Nkrumah campaign:
‘’we may have as pro-western coup in Ghana soon. Certain key police and military figures have been planning one for some time, and Ghana’s deteriorating economic condition may provide the spark.
‘’The plotters are keeping us briefed ‘’, he noted, ‘’and the State Department thinks we’re more on the inside than the British. While we are not directly involved [I’m told], we and other western countries [including France] have been helping by ignoring Nkrumah’s pleas for economic aid.’’
Even before the coup several assassination attempts have been made on the life of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, the sole founder of the Republic of Ghana. Out of the several assassination attempts on the life of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, one that easily comes to mind is the infamous Kulungugu bomb attack which claimed several lives and left hundreds injured.
May the soul of all those lost their lives rest in perfect peace. This nefarious act occurred on August 1, 1962, when Osagyefo was returning from Tenkondogo in the present day Burkina Faso after a visit to President Maurice Yameogo. Osagyefo escaped with some injuries on the skin. It is believed that Osagyefo died of skin cancer which he contracted from the Kulungugu bomb attack.
The disheartening part of the whole event was the things that happened after the coup. osagyefo’s office was ransacked and Nyaniba, the mother of Osagyefo was rudely asked to pack and leave the flagstaff house for Nkroful. According to Professor Agyemang Badu Akorsah, some professors and lecturers began setting ablaze their source of daily bread. I mean books written by Nkrumah and books which espoused his ideas were set on fire by professors who were anti-Nkrumah.
Although opposition elements like Professor Kofi Busia and his surrogates claim to be in the clear regarding the coup, the speed with which they accepted juicy and mouthwatering appointments from the “National Liars Council” (the military regime) speaks volume. In fact, the speed with which Professor Busia accepted his appointment as the chairman of the political council of the NLC was more than that of light.
I would like to give a 21-gun salute to the late Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah, late comrade Patrice Lumumba of Congo, late comrade Colonel Muammar-al- Gaddafi of Libya, late comrade Nelson Madiba Mandela and the last man standing, His Excellency Robert Mugabe for their perpetual fight against imperialism and for PAN- AFRICANISM.
Patrick Yindough
Member of ALL AFRICAN PEOPLES REVOLUTINARY PARTY (AAPRP)
