Ghana urged to study Nkrumah’s policies for development — MyJoyOnline
In Ghana, Samuel Ntewusu, director of the African Studies unit at the University of Ghana, called for a critical analysis of the policies of the country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, in order to use their lessons to address contemporary development challenges. MyJoyOnline reports.
Ahead of Founders’ Day, dedicated to the 117th anniversary of Nkrumah’s birth, the scholar said that honoring the politician should not be limited to ceremonies. In his view, the relevance of Nkrumah’s ideas for national and continental development should be studied.
An assessment beyond party disputes
Ntewusu noted that Nkrumah’s contribution should be considered beyond political preferences and current party debates. According to him, Ghana’s political identity is directly linked to Nkrumah, and his strategies were crucial to the success of the struggle for independence, although other figures also took part in it.
The professor believes that the true honoring of Nkrumah should not be the fact of celebration itself, but the study and application of his approaches to development.
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Economy, education and African unity
Among the areas for such an analysis, Ntewusu named economic independence, resource extraction, education, urbanization, agriculture and energy. Separately, he proposed reflecting on Nkrumah’s ideas concerning African unity and liberation in the conditions of modern Africa.
Kwame Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, in Nkroful, then the Gold Coast. After returning from abroad in 1947, he joined the independence movement, and in 1949 founded the Convention People’s Party. Under his leadership, the Gold Coast gained independence from the United Kingdom on March 6, 1957, and became Ghana — the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to free itself from colonial rule.
Nkrumah was Ghana’s first prime minister and first president after the proclamation of the republic in 1960. His government implemented programs in education, industrialization, infrastructure and social development, including the Volta River project and the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
