THOUSANDS OF Convention Peoples� Party (CPP) supporters on Wednesday congregated at Nkroful, the birthplace of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, founder of the party and Ghana�s first president to celebrate his 102nd birthday.
The venue lit up with the singing of patriotic songs amidst brass-band music interjected with shouts of �Nkrumah Show Boy� by party faithful who marched through the principal streets of Nkroful.
Clad in white apparel with the cockerel, the party�s symbol printed on the back, they later converged at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in the town where party loyalists surrounded the late president�s tomb and observed a minute�s silence in his memory.
Wreaths were also laid on the tomb by the leadership of the CPP in the Western region and family members of the late president.
Born on September 21, 1909, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, led Ghana to independence on March 6, 1957 but was overthrown in a coup d��tat in February 1966.
Tributes to Nkrumah speaking of his selfless leadership style, the struggle for African liberation and unity, subsequent overthrow and rejection by some of his close associates as well as his exile days in Guinea were paid during the event.
One CPP activist remarked that it remained an incontrovertible fact that since the overthrow of the CPP in 1966, no government had been able to deliver a fraction of the development the party brought to the good people of Ghana between 1957 and 1966.
According to the CPP activist, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) governments, who have governed the country over the past three decades, seem to know how to attain power by hook or crook but have woefully failed to deliver with regards to governance and leadership.
Addressing the teeming party supporters, CPP�s Western Regional Chairman, Samuel Gordon Etroo said since the party�s inception on June 12, 1948, it had remained the only political party which articulated the concerns of most Ghanaians within the framework of anti-imperialist ideology.
He pointed out that the CPP was among the leading political parties in the world which believed in making progress by relying principally on the people.
�Dr Nkrumah in a life span of 63 years achieved distinction as a writer, freedom fighter and socialist. He was a fearless fighter for the emancipation of our beloved country and pursued this objective throughout his life,� Comrade Etroo added.
Former CPP MP for Evalue-Gwira in the region, Kojo Armah noted that the founder lived a life worthy of emulation and called on the youth to learn from Nkrumah and his achievements.
He said Kwame Nkrumah made tremendous achievements within six years as the country�s president and mentioned some of them as the construction of Tema motorway in 1964, the building of two chocolate factories in Takoradi and Tema as well as the construction of various second cycle institutions.
Eulogizing the country�s first president, MP for Ellembelle, Armah Kofi Buah said Nkrumah was a great statesman whose visions and ideas were unmatched.
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