tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11648048.post114225426415368602..comments2024-01-30T08:14:17.802+00:00Comments on The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly-Arrived Denizen...of Ghana: In Response to Koranteng's Toli on Kwame Nkrumah, and His Redemption ThereofEmmanuel.K.Bensah IIhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425904642659360906noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11648048.post-1144738058887773032006-04-11T06:47:00.000+00:002006-04-11T06:47:00.000+00:00Very amusing. If Nkrumah were that independent of ...Very amusing. If Nkrumah were that independent of American patronage, what was the "African Show Boy" doing in Hanoi on the day of his ouster?<BR/><BR/>You can make any curious financial claims between Danquah and the CIA. But the fact remains that Nkrumah unconstitutionally wasted Ghana's material resources on his personal, external political ambitions, and this is patently unpatriotic.<BR/><BR/>In sum, why did it have to take a myopic dictator like Mr. Rawlings to extend electricity to the northern parts of Ghana, while President Nkrumah siphoned the same into Togo and the Ivory Coast, at no particular benefit to Ghana?<BR/><BR/>I happy this dialogue is going on!<BR/>Finally, we may be able to put some definitive closure to the Nkrumahist myth.<BR/><BR/>Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11648048.post-1142278052907384062006-03-13T19:27:00.000+00:002006-03-13T19:27:00.000+00:00This is reasoning-lite. When I say Nkrumah had ali...This is reasoning-lite. When I say Nkrumah had alienated "significant portions of the Ghanaian populace," your response should be the citation of a poll that refutes my assertion. Or better yet, the results of a free and fair election that was contested by any Ghanaian who met the Constitutional requirements, within a multiparty state. This latter condition couldn't have been met because your idol had foreclosed that option. Would you seriously prefer to live in a one-party state today? Saying that Nkrumah made mistakes because he was "human," and believing that that absolves him of critical judgement just opens the floodgates for each and every dictator and historical miscreant, starting, let's say, from Genghis Khan to Pol Pot to wash away their sins. <BR/><BR/>Your calumny against JB Danquah should not go unanswered. I'm not an expert in the history of that period, so I throw out a challenge to anyone who is to come set the record straight. <BR/><BR/>You might as well say that Nkrumah's tilt toward...what?...I'd say the senseless cult of egomaniacal personality placed him in the pay of his Soviet masters, who in the end had to provide guards to protect him from Ghanaians. Isn't that rich in irony?<BR/><BR/>All of Nkrumah's so-called achievements do bear scrutiny, there can't be any doubt that the record is mixed. There is no question that the trajectory of the country at the time of his ouster was not a pleasant one. Having said all of this, though, I think that the sooner Ghana gets over this and seizes a true destiny away from false nostalgia the better.<BR/><BR/>Lastly, I hope you don't really believe that being an intellectual with a Ph.D (of course, Nkrumah didn't even have that, I believe, what he had was a honorary degree - which really doesn't entitle one to call oneself "Dr." - and his calling himself such was the regrettable beginning of Ghana's worship of the fatted calf of the golden Ph.D idol) and a student of Theology qualifies a person to be a good head of state.Dia&Kofihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15541075908131234244noreply@blogger.com