Founder's Day celebrated to spite NPP - Ocquaye

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party has described as ‘propagandist’ the annual celebration of Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday as Founder’s Day.

According to him, the history of the country has been distorted in order to favour a particular group of people and to “spite the NPP people who were part of the founders.”

“I feel sad on a day like this. Yes, because there is a tragic contortion of our history. This day should be a day of joy and should be ‘Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah Day’, but when you call it ‘Founder’s Day’, you take away that which belongs to so many people including him and give it only to him,” he said on Accra-based Class FM.

Ghanaians, today, Wednesday, September 21, celebrate the 107th birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, for his contribution towards the independence and growth of the country.

The day was made a public holiday by late President John Evans Atta Mills, to enable Ghanaians to reflect on the sacrifices and achievements of the country’s founding fathers.

However, Prof Oquaye believes it is wrong to focus on only Dr Nkrumah on such a Day, as it creates the impression that he was the only one who fought for the country’s independence.

“People do not want to understand this for propaganda reasons. It is not true that the founding fathers must be one person. In the US, it is not only George Washington, though he was the leader – about 20 of them are listed and well said as founding fathers,” he said.

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