The Director of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Prof Samuel Ntewusu, has urged policymakers and researchers to revisit Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s development policies for lessons that could help address Ghana’s contemporary economic and social challenges.
He said Nkrumah’s legacy should not be confined to annual commemorations, but should be subjected to rigorous academic and policy analysis to determine which aspects of his development thinking could remain relevant to Ghana and Africa today.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency ahead of the Founders’ Day celebrations, Prof Ntewusu said issues such as economic independence, natural resource management, education, agriculture, energy and industrialisation remained important areas for reflection.
He said examining those policies objectively would allow Ghanaians to distinguish between political affiliation and the substance of Nkrumah’s contribution to national development.
“Celebration is not an event,” Prof Ntewusu said, stressing that the true measure of honouring Nkrumah should be the extent to which his ideas were studied critically and applied where relevant.
He noted that while a number of individuals contributed to Ghana’s independence struggle, Nkrumah’s political strategies played a central role in the attainment of independence.
According to him, Ghana’s political identity remains closely associated with Nkrumah, making it necessary for his contribution to be examined beyond contemporary partisan disagreements.
Prof Ntewusu particularly called for reflection on Nkrumah’s approach to economic independence and resource extraction, as well as his policies on education, urbanisation, agriculture and energy.
He also urged Africans to examine Nkrumah’s ideas on political, economic and cultural liberation within the context of present-day continental challenges.
“I think that as we celebrate Nkrumah, all parties, all parties, I don’t care anybody of any political persuasion, let’s put that aside, look at Nkrumah’s policies critically and see the way in which we are able to mine some of his policies for the betterment of this country and then global Africa,” he said.
He said Nkrumah’s vision of Africans advancing as a united front also warranted continued study, particularly in the context of efforts towards greater African integration and development.
Ghanaians and Pan-Africans around the world are commemorating the 117th anniversary of the birth of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President and a prominent advocate of African unity and liberation.
The occasion, observed as Founders’ Day, is a public holiday following Parliament’s restoration of September 21 as Founders’ Day in 2025.
Dr Nkrumah was born on September 21, 1909, at Nkroful in the then Gold Coast. He returned to the Gold Coast in 1947 and became actively involved in the independence movement before founding the Convention People’s Party (CPP) in 1949.
Following the CPP’s victory in the 1951 elections, he became Leader of Government Business and subsequently Prime Minister in 1952.
Under his leadership, the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain on March 6, 1957, becoming Ghana and the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from colonial rule.
Dr Nkrumah became Ghana’s first Prime Minister and later its first President following the establishment of the republic in 1960.
His administration implemented programmes in education, industrialisation, infrastructure and social development, including the Volta River Project and the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
At the continental level, he was a leading advocate of Pan-Africanism and played a key role in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, the precursor to the African Union.
Dr Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup on February 24, 1966, while on a state visit abroad. He spent his final years in Guinea and died in Bucharest, Romania, on April 27, 1972.
