A leading CPP member calls for merger between CPP, PNC and NDC to preserve Nkrumah’s ideals.

A member of the CPP Patriots, the only truly “patriotic organisation in Ghana” affiliated to Convention Peoples Party has called for a formation of coalition pact between the three Nkrumaist parties – Convention Peoples Party, Peoples National Convention and National Democratic Congress.

This writer and numerous Nkrumaists, including Osahene Major Kojo Boakye Djan Rtd., Captain Kojo Tsikata Rtd and Dr Kwesi Botchwey among others, at various point in time, have called for the cool heads of the various factions of the Nkrumaist groupings to come together and strengthened the electoral machinery of Dr Nkrumah’s party.

According to the leading member of the Patriots, this move would position the Nkrumaist alliance in the country as the strongest political party and encourage Ghanaians to take pride in Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s achievements as well as develop the country based on Dr Nkrumah’s 7 Year Development Plan.
Late Professor John Evan Atta Mills in his lifetime understood this urgency of unification, and urged the various Nkrumaist groups in the three parties to resolve their historical differences and go before future elections as one coalition.
Former party stalwarts such as late Kwame Sanaa Poku Jantuah and late Alhaji Imoru Egala were a unifying force in the party that brought together all the various factions in the third republic under the banner of Peoples National Party.
Osahene Kojo Boakye Djan said, “We as Nkrumaists have long forgotten that the bone of contention between factions within the greater Nkrumaists family is an ideology which is no longer relevant in modern times”. Osahene added, “Is it not time now to note the similarities of CPP, NDC and PNC and to forgo the differences? Is it not time now for us to think the unthinkable, burry our differences and form one party under the ideas and ideals of our founder and father of our country?”
Another leading Nkrumaist said, CPP, PNC and NDC were no longer defined by the 1983 revolution and urge for a public reconciliation and coalition. He said he was inspired by the coming together of all the various Nkrumaists factions during the Founder’s day anniversary under the leadership of the late Nkruamist President, Professor Atta Mills.
Within the CPP there is a significant level of hostility to such a deal, with many, including the current CPP Secretary General, Nii Akromfah, saying that such coalition would be bad for the party. Akromfah and others’ main criticism centred on PNDC’s lack of contrition about their overthrown of the Limman PNP government and their unwillingness to apologise for the various things done under that regime, a regime which was a military administration.
After the illegal and criminal overthrown of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s government in 1966, led by Akwesi Amankwa Afrifa and Akwesi Kotoka, CPP was proscribed and the military junta banished anything associated with Nkrumah and CPP, thus started the decline of the party, until it was revived in 1979 by the excellent organisational skills of Alhaji Imoro Egala and Mr K.P Jantuah (both former cabinet ministers in Nkrumah’s CPP government) under a new Nkrumaist Party, the Peoples Nation Party.
When NDC was formed in the early 1990s with remnants of CPP and some disillusioned members of the liberal wing of the UP, it became the only party that seemingly represented the best interests of the ordinary people, the so called “Veranda boys and girls who were the backbone of Dr Nkrumah’s CPP”. The creation of NDC under another “charismatic leader, Jerry John Rawlings, like Dr Kwame Nkrumah, gave the “ordinary people” their own political voice. Rawlings exploited the fragmentation of the Nkrumaist factions to his great advantage. The core leadership of National Democratic Congress was made up of Convention Peoples Party people who have openly confessed to their Nkrumaist ideology – free and fair society, where everyone is given the same opportunity to succeed. Rawlings, as a master tactician, after banning the name Convention Peoples Party, co-opted CPP into his newly formed National Democratic Congress. National Democratic Congress is Convention Peoples Party all but in name, a fact which is known to everyone.
The growth of National Democratic Congress was not only the reason for the decline of the Nkrumaists, but the party itself was a split force after the death of Alhaji Imoro Egala.
The formation of NDC effectively split CPP into three factions, those who supported Dr Hilla Limman, those who supported Kow Nkensen Arkaah and those who supported Gen Erskine.
However the alliance between National Democratic Congress and National Convention Party prior to the 1992 general elections encouraged those who joined Rawlings PNDC Military administration earlier to stay and fight to refine and redirect the party towards Nkrumaism.
The formation of Convention Peoples Party through the merger of Arkaah’s National Convention Party and General Erskine’s People’s Convention Party was all but in name since the core of National Democratic Congress is made up of Convention Peoples Party members, including the late President, Professor Atta Mills and others.
Professor Mills, who became National Democratic Congress candidate for the 2000 presidential elections and lost to Kuffuor twice, 2000 and 2004, became the party’s candidate for the third time, winning by 81.4%, running as the best Nkrumaist candidate to win the presidency.
Mills did not hide his Nkrumaist credentials; as he went on to honour the late founder and father of Ghana, an honour which was later recognised by the continental body, African Union, as the lead architect for the integration of Africa.
The committee set up to plan the celebrations of the late founder and father of modern Ghana were made up of the core Nkrumaists in all the three Nkrumaists parties – National Democratic Congress, Convention Peoples Party and Peoples National Convention. Mills tried to bring all the factions together but his illness and subsequent death robed the Nkrumaists of that great opportunity.
Mills successor and current President of Ghana, John Mahama, ran on his Nkrumaist credentials in the 2012 elections, and like Dr Hilla Limman in 1979 and Professor Mills in 2008, carried 8 of the 10 regions in Ghana.
It was Ghana at 50 celebrations that Late Professor Mills and his handlers realised that the only way they can win back power from the NPP is by strengthening their Nkrumaists links. At Ghana at 50 celebrations, Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s name dominated the occasion which incidentally was celebrated across sub-Saharan Africa. Dr Kwame Nkrumah is seen by many Africans, especially the young, who make up over 70% of the population of the continent, as the Liberator of the continent and Africa’s true Patriot. Many do not know who Nkrumah was, including this writer, but know that he was at the forefront for total economic and political liberation of Africa. As much as the colonialists and their local criminal stooges tried to wipe his name off the continent, they could not succeed in their evil intent.
Some historians and political analysts, including this writer, view the banning of Convention Peoples Party and the formation of National Democratic Congress as the one event that effectively split the party. During the 2008 Presidential elections runoff and 2012 presidential elections, officially there was only one Nkrumaist party with one leader, the rest became irrelevant – CPP, PNC and PPP, as the results asserted. President Mills maintain that subtle coalition when he was alive. Mills did not get things his own way due to the constant criticism from the Rawlings faction of NDC, however his behind the scene approach paved the way for John Mahama’s victory in 2012 and thus the continuation of the Nkrumaist Legacy.