Accra, Feb. 13, GNA – The Committee for Joint Action (CJA) on Tuesday said it was organising a “People’s Jubilee Procession” in Accra on March 6, the day of the Golden Jubilee of Ghana’s independence. “This will be a procession for the ordinary people, who have been excluded from the official celebrations and who wish to commemorate independence as the popular revolutionary event that it really was,” Mr Kyeretwie Opoku, spokesman, said at a press conference in Accra on Tuesday.
Calling on Ghanaians from all walks of life to join the march in addition to true Nkrumaist and Pan-Africanists, he said the march would start at 0900 hours from the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and end at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum where tributes and the laying of wreaths in honour of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and other fallen heroes of independence would be held.
Mr. Opoku who was flanked by Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Mr Ato Ahwoi both of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Alhaji Ahmed Ramada, Vice-Chairman of the People’s National Congress (PNC), said the CJA was “distressed at the narrowness, emptiness and clumsiness of the unfolding official programme”.
“We have duly informed the police of our procession and as the law provides we expect that they will turn out to steward the procession and indeed celebrate with us,” Mr Opoku said.
He said March 6, 1957 was the moment in the nation’s history when for the first time the masses celebrated the political victory they had won through years of difficult and dangerous struggle and celebrated the future of confident nation building that political power offered to Ghanaians and Africans everywhere.
“For the masses, 1957 meant economic independence. It meant mass self-mobilisation, for self-reliant use of national resources to achieve equitable development for all. It meant the chance to create a united prosperous country out of the divisions sown by the slave trade and colonial divide and rule,” Mr. Opoku said.
He said the itinerary so far outlined for the celebrations excludes the masses, involving mainly the rich and the elite contrary to what independence stood for.
“The golden jubilee celebration is in crisis not just because of the vulgarity or clumsiness of its organisation, but also because the social forces whose defeat was celebrated on March 6, 1957 have since seized power. “They are bent on using 6th march to celebrate not the people’s victory but the revenge they have exacted against the people since 1966, (when Dr Nkrumah was overthrown).”
He alleged that the organisers of the Jubilee celebration were honouring people who opposed independence in 1957 and the CJA members saw it as a gross disrespect to the memory of Dr Nkrumah. “What ordinary Ghanaians have to celebrate in 2007 is our original vision, our endurance, our hard earned wisdom and our commitment to get back on track and complete the journey,” he said.
“For now we are about 30 years behind schedule and we need to all wake up, march forward and celebrate joyously, boldly and indeed militantly our hard won independence,” he added. 13 Feb. 07
Source: GhanaWeb
