Atta Mills’s memorial day should also be a holiday

A practical demonstration of this could be seen on the proposal by the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to parliament, asking the Honorable Members to designate August 4, as Founders Day and September 21, as Kwame Nkrumah Memorial day, both days are to be observed as public holidays.

If a day a political party was formed could be declared a public holiday, then the day we lost a sitting president, deserves recognition, aside the annual public lectures.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), since the passing of Prof. John Atta Mills, have not fought to preserve his legacy, as they have shown to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Ghanaian hypocrisy is the worst, one could find anywhere on the surface of the earth.

On that fateful day of February 24, 1966, when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, for one month Ghanaians jubilated. Everything in their wake that belonged to Dr. kwame Nkrumah. Was either burnt or pulled down. For more than a week, books belonging to Dr. Nkrumah, was burnt at the Trades Union Congress.

The wild jubilations was not planned, forced by it was genuine, a weight was lifted off the shoulders of Ghanaians, today, for political reasons, some people are behaving as if, Dr. Nkrumah’s overthrow was a bad omen for this country.

This year, July 24, marked five years after the passing of Prof. John Evans Atta Mills. A coincidence, you might call it, whiles Nkrumah was overthrown on February 24, Mills died on July, 24. The funeral of Prof. Mills was the only time that we shed our usual crocodile tears.

Days after his passing, a lot of people shared their intimate moments with him, as well as their experiences, this accounts were often accompanied with tears. Indeed, my good self, I shared a tear or two, but ask me, what I have done, since his casket was lowered into the ground.

The party that he led into the 2008 crucial elections has not shown enough good fate. His final resting place, the ‘asomdwe park’, was left unattended, sparking waves of calls and agitations, after the NDC lost power last year.

I have sometimes wondered why these Danquah-Busia surrogates will not stop trying to rewrite the history of this country to favour their forebears. This country, cannot afford to be taken a step forward and two backwards. Ghanaians don’t mind, observing twenty holidays in a year, but the holidays, must be relevant to the national discourse.

Muslims in the country, have been advocating for two days, when celebrating the Eid-Ul-Adha, a day is not enough, considering what Muslims are expected to do. You cannot observe the holy sacrifice in a single day. The incessant calls have fallen on deaf ears, since ex-president, Jerry John Rawlings, did Mulsims in the country the honour by granting them the much deserved holidays, on the occasions of Eid-Ul-Fitr and Eid-Ul-Adha.

President, Akufo-Addo, did not find it necessary to consider the request of Muslims, but instead is on a frolic of his own, to honour the memory of his forebears. For some reason, it seems like my Nana Addo and not the New Patriotic Party, badly wants to make his uncle and father national heroes.

It is clear, president Akufo-Addo, is on a mission to impose his family on us and the national psyche. He is doing everything possible to re-write the history of this country, with his family members, playing leading roles.

He started by appointing everyone in his family to serve in his government, but he should remember and all those appointed should also remember that, they should enjoy it, while it is hot. The day, he will leave office, is the day, members of his family, will begin to realize what mistake, he made by giving them appointments.

Since independence, from the first republic to the fourth republican dispensation, the only time, a sitting president, had passed on, was in 2012. It is my prayers that, such a calamity never befalls this nation, as it is one of the most painful experiences, any nation, will have to go through.

We are not celebrating the memory of president Mills. Every year, some few loyalists of his, will gather, invite someone to come and give a lecture and that is all. If August 4, is worth observing and Members of Parliament are being called upon to help legislate the day as a public holiday, then we can certainly do more for President, John Evans Atta Mills.

A country that does not recognize its heroes, it is said is not worth dying for. President Mills, like any other human beings, had his bad sides, but he loved his country and his people. He was a rare breed of politician, the kind Ghana will never have. We are all witnesses to what is happening to innocent Ghanaians, whose crimes are that, they are perceived to be members of the National Democratic Congress. They are being dismissed from their jobs, without anyone to speak for them.

When Prof. Mills, took over in 2009, District Chief Executives were urged to stay on, some heads government institutions and agencies remained at post for nine months to one year. The Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD was only relieved of his post in 2013. If as a country, we cannot celebrate this man, then indeed Ghana is not worth dying for.

It is obvious the holidays are too many and so we cannot add another one, but at least we can do more for the good Professor, than we are currently doing.

I already know that president Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party hate Nkrumah. The NPP is free to do that, but they must not also destroy themselves and divide the nation, just to prove to the world hate him.

What the country needs to settle once and for all on who founded Ghana is wisdom – political wisdom.

I am no longer troubled that some of us who should know better are still drinking gin on an empty stomach and getting dizzy.

As for the members of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP), the least said about them the better. They don’t deserve any sympathy and empathy, as the problems of Nkrumah, is all because they fail to unite.