They instead initiated a long nightmare that destroyed Nkrumah’s vision for Ghana and Africa – Fmr. President John Dramani Mahama

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57 years ago today, 24th February 1966, the Danquah-Busia political tradition conspired with external intelligence agencies to initiate Ghana’s first coup d’etat, which toppled the government of our first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

This coup was achieved through a conscious and constant campaign of falsehood and calumny.

As a former President of Ghana who has also been at the receiving end of the Danquah-Busia tradition’s campaign of slander and sabotage, I can empathise completely with the quandary President Nkrumah found himself in.

In 1966, I was a young boy still in primary school. But I remember highlights of the dark days that followed the February 24, 1966 coup.

The perpetrators woefully failed to liberate Ghana as they had promised. They instead initiated a long nightmare that destroyed Nkrumah’s vision for Ghana and Africa.

As today marks 57 years of that coup d’etat, I call on all fellow Ghanaians and our patriotic security agencies and armed forces to mark this day as one of reflection and to remain loyal to the 1992 Constitution as we begin the task of rescuing our dear nation from the dark pit the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has plunged us into.

I further urge all Africans to give meaningful democracy a chance, the very reason for which I am presently here in Nigeria as Head of the West African Elders Forum on an election mediation mission, as the country votes on Saturday.