[ 2017-02-22 ]

Rev. Prof. Emeritus John S. Pobee giving a lecture at a ceremony in Accra.

NPP must work to realise aspirations of Ghanaians
The government has been advised to get to work to
realise the aspirations of Ghanaians who are full
of expectation.

Instead of harping on its Danquah-Busia heritage,
the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) must work
hard and leave a lasting legacy just as J.B
Danquah had done.

The advice from Rev. Prof. Emeritus John S. Pobee,
an Anglican Theologian, also included the need for
politicians from all sides of the political divide
to continue to work in the collective interest of
the nation and its citizens.

He said there were politicians who used the
Danquah-Busia name but could not point to things
that the duo, particularly Dr Danquah had done to
champion the cause of the country.

The former Executive Director of Theological
Education of the World Council of Churches in
Switzerland explained that just as the NPP touted
the achievement of Danquah, the party must also
leave a lasting legacy for generations unborn to
remember.

“He (Danquah) lived his life for the nation and
not for his personal interest. He was a visionary
who thought ahead and inspired us to do things in
our context,” he said at the 50th J.B. Danquah
Memorial lectures in Accra last Monday.

On the first day of the three-day lecture, it was
on the topic: “Peace and Security: An African
Christian Theological Contribution.”

According to Rev. Prof. Emeritus Pobee, the goal
of politics was to ensure peace and security of
people and not just for power.

Man of many sides

Although he was one of the country’s leading
voices and activists against colonialism, Dr
Danquah has over the years been put in the shadows
of his contemporary, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who led the
country to independence from British colonial rule
in 1957.

But Rev. Prof. Emeritus Pobee said Dr Danquah who
had his named etched in history as a doyen of
Ghana politics was a man of many parts whose
contribution to the country’s heritage left
footprints in education, politics, youth
development and the economy.

Going into the details, he said although Dr
Danquah parted ways with Dr Nkrumah after the
latter left the United Gold Coast Convention
(UGCC), it was the former’s research on the old
Ghana Empire and his link between the Bonds of
1844 and Ghana’s independence that the latter
accepted to change the country’s name to Ghana
and also declare its independence on March 6,
1957.

“The interesting thing is that his political
nemesis, Nkrumah, could accept his research so
that at Independence, we became Ghana and stopped
using Gold Coast,” he said.

On March 6, 1844, the British signed a political
agreement with a confederation of Fante states.
Known as the Bond of 1844, the agreement extended
British protection to the signatory states and
gave Britain a degree of authority over them. In
subsequent years, additional coastal and interior
states signed the Bond.

It was the first agreement indigenous leaders
signed with colonialist thus, the March 6 was seen
as a date to severe ties with colonialism.

He said the late Danquah was not just a visionary
but was also an actor who dug in his feet and got
things done.

Education

He also credited the late Danquah as being the man
who made a strong case for the establishment of
the University College of the Gold Coast at a time
the British colonial power set up committees at
different times to look into the establishment of
universities in British territories in West
Africa.

While one committee recommended three universities
in the Gold Coast, Nigeria and Sierra Leone
another suggested only one for the entire
subregion but this tickled Danquah’s nerves.

Hence, the Anglican theologian said, Dr Danquah
made a forceful argument before the National
Assembly, saying “the Gold Coast is not Nigeria.
Achimota is not Yaba or Ibadan and never would be.
For purely cultural reasons, I conceived that the
Gold Coast a proud little with a good reason for
being proud, can never and will never be proud of
a university situated in Ibadan.”

He said Danquah then went on to make a case for
the establishment of a university that suits the
culture and tradition of the Gold
Coast—University College of the Gold Coast (now
University of Ghana) and much later the then
University of Science and Technology (now Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology).

Distorted history

An author with many books to his credit, Rev.
Prof. Emeritus Pobee observed that Danquah was a
historian who ensured that Ghanaians who got
first-hand Ghanaian history through his books and
not distorted western accounts.

“Our stories were sieved through their thinking.
Many at times, we just take the fabrication from
foreign lands and things don’t jell properly in
our context. Therefore, Danquah was one of the
people who tried to help us to drink from our own
wells so that we can be authentic Ghanaians and
not pseudo Europeans,” he explained.

Youth development

He paid tribute to the late Danquah for
championing the cause of the youth through
integration of the youth into national politics
and other issues of national importance as far
back as 1938; at a time the adage “young people
must be seen and not heard” was the norm.

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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