A former National Treasurer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwabena Abankwa-Yeboah, has urged Ghanaians to emulate the spirit of selflessness and patriotism exhibited by the nation’s founding fathers, including Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in order to build the country ‘we all want.’

He also stressed the need for the citizenry to come together as one people to grow the nation as envisioned by the country’s founding fathers.

“We need to inculcate in ourselves the love for our country, unite and with oneness to build our country so that future generations will cherish the same values and ideals,” he said.

Mr Abankwa-Yeboah said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic as the country commemorated the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, which fell yesterday, and observed as a statutory public holiday on September 21 each year.

Welfare system

The leading member of the governing NPP and also the Vice-Chairman of the party’s Presidential Elections Committee tasked to conduct its presidential primary, said although he was a firm believer in the centre-right ideology he also believed in the welfare system where the state would at least be able to provide the basic needs of the people.

He cited Sweden and other countries where the welfare system was in place to buttress his point, saying that it was a policy that we must work towards as a country to ensure that the basic needs of the people were provided.

“Although I am centre-right  because of the socialistic instinct, I look at the welfare aspect for which I believe, as a nation, if we are able to put our policies right, everybody in this country will benefit from good governance in the welfare system where there will be distribution of resources,” he stated.

Nkrumah’s birth date

Mr Abankwa-Yeboah who displayed a copy of the book titled “Your Government” the story of the Gold Coast General Election of 1954 published by the then Graphic Corporation now Graphic Communications Group Ltd, which he said was bequeathed to him by his father of blessed memory, Emmanuel Abankwa-Yeboah, who was elected on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party to the Legislative Assembly in 1954, had the birth date of Dr Nkrumah as September 16, 1909.

According to the book, Dr Nkrumah was elected as the Prime Minister in the General Election of 1954.

It also contained the names of his cabinet ministers, ministerial secretaries and the number of political parties representatives elected to the Legislative Assembly.

Mr Abankwa-Yeboah suggested that based on the birth date provided in the book as September 16, 1909, the birthday of Dr Nkrumah should be looked at again. 

Source: GraphicOnline