THE STOLEN APOSTROPHE, By Dr. Nii Moi Thompson

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(By Dr. Nii Moi Thompson)

Another year, another holiday for the Old Boy, and yet another reminder of the stolen apostrophe – from Founder’s to Founders’.

But founders of what exactly? A political party? Well, any fool, taflatsɛ, can found a political party. Look at the number of people (fools?) parading around today as founders of political parties.

Not so a nation. That takes guts, grit, vision, exceptional organisational ability, and of course the hard work to deliver a people from the choking tentacles of colonialism.

None, apart from Nkrumah, in the so-called Big Six had a fraction of these qualities – or record.

Taken out of the group and assessed individually, they each had a political record that pales in comparison to Nkrumah’s, the only qualified exception being Danquah, who played his part before the arrival of Nkrumah and dimmed afterwards.

But Danquah was neither a prime minister nor a president. For all his erudition and biting letters to the Crown on colonialism, he was a disaster in the electoral trenches.

He won but one election and was subsequently rejected by his own people as Nkrumah and the CPP amassed victory upon victory across the land, including Danquah’s front yard of Abuakwa, which the CPP conquered with ease, despite the empty threats of Nana Ofori-Atta to exile anyone who dared vote CPP. Indeed, Nkrumah’s last finance minister was an MP from Kyebi!

The party Danquah and Busia formed, Ghana Congress Party, after the crushing defeat of the UGCC in 1951, won only one out of 104 seats, while the CPP, under the exceptional leadership of Nkrumah, cruised to victory with a “comfortable lead” and 72 seats!

How can you squeeze such disparate records of political performance into one box and call it Big Six and place it at the altar of political expediency for us to worship?

And so after all the tantrums and theatrics, the slicing and dicing of our history, we ended up right back where we started: A national holiday for Nkrumah, The Founder, with or without an apostrophe.

Nkrumah, indeed, never dies.

Happy Birthday, Old Boy!