Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said that Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, plunged the country into chaos and virtually eradicated democracy.

Ex-President Kufuor, who was interacting with the leadership of the International Democratic Union (IDU) which paid a courtesy call on him at his office in Accra, said on Tuesday, June 20 that Mr Nkrumah misused Ghana’s resources and plunged the country into poverty.

Explaining further, he pointed out that by 1963, “our then President Nkrumah, left of centre politician, moved the country into a one-party state with a lot of intolerance; he built a whole prison just 22 miles of Accra for the detention of political opponents”.

He observed: “Democracy as we are espousing was virtually killed,” and was quick to add that “by 1966 the country had had too much and it was labouring under poverty it had never known before”.

Mr Kufuor, who served as president between 2001 and 2009, said the country was “labouring under intolerance and people were not allowed to express themselves [under President Nkrumah]…”

He indicated that it was after 1992 that the country became stable and democracy was introduced and hopefully has been strengthened over the years.

The IDU, of which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is a member, is a working association of over 80 Conservative, Christian Democrat and like-minded political parties of the centre and centre right.

The NPP was able to join the IDU courtesy the intervention of Mr Kufuor when he was the president of the Republic of Ghana.

Therefore, the leadership of the Union deemed it fit to pay a courtesy call on him before the commencement of a meeting by the IDU in Accra.