Member of Parliament for Zabzugu, Alhassan Umar, has suggested to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to seek parliamentary approval if he wants his family members to be remembered in the history of Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo and his New Patriotic Party come under criticisms in recent time in what is believed to be their bid to place Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah above Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the struggle for Ghana’s independence.
The latest decision by the President to change September 21 (Nkrumah’s birthday) from being Founder’s Day to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day and make August 4 Founders Day has reinforced the criticism of Nana Akufo-Addo.
Commenting on the latest decision by the President on Monday on TV3’s New Day, Mr Umar said: “if the President wants his family members to be remembered, then we have to remove the ‘s’ [from Founder’s Day] to be able to include the rest [including JB Danquah]”.
Mr Umar who is a National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP said “you can’t water down what Kwame Nkrumah did and if so, what the President may do is to suggest to Parliament to remove the apostrophe ‘s’ on the Founder’s Day to make it Founders’ Day and leave it so that it will be subservient to the day.
“The President wants to downplay the role Nkrumah played and what the President wants to do is reinvention of the wheel”, he added.
Mr. Umar said the people of Ghana did not vote Nana Akufo-Addo into office to create more holidays but rather businesses, indicating the making of August 4 a public holiday will affect businesses.
Depeuty Communication Minister, George Nenyi Andah said though the commemoration of September 21 is important, “we have to cover the significance of August 4 in the history of Ghana”.
“We will continue to learn the history of Ghana and the President is saying let us talk about it, he is not saying we should do it” he explained. He said August 4 is not about NPP, saying “The events of August 4 are not about NPP but about what transpired in Ghana then”.
Source: GhanaWeb
