In a reprimand akin to the Biblical admonition that a prophet is without honour among his kindred, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has berated attempts in the past to denigrate the name and importance of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah said it was a shame that such attempts were made at all, particularly at a time when the whole continent, and indeed the world, honoured Dr Nkrumah in superlative terms.

He was speaking at the launch of the Nkrumah Fest, an initiative of the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, to honour the name and legacy of Ghana’s first President.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah commended Mr Armah-Kofi Buah for instituting the festival, describing it as an effort to purge Ghana of what he considered the shame brought on the country by attempts to denigrate Dr Nkrumah's image, name and legacy.

“First of all, I want to thank Honourable Armah Kofi Buah for instituting this Nkrumah Fest because I see it as an attempt to purge our dear country of the shame we have brought onto ourselves by denigrating the image, name and legacy of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah,” he said.

According to him, the situation was particularly troubling because the rest of Africa and the wider world had recognised Dr Nkrumah as the African of the Century.

He said the Nkrumah Fest could therefore help correct what he described as a dent on Ghana's image and ensure that the former President's contribution to the country and Africa was properly remembered.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah also recounted a personal experience which, he said, had made him an “unrepentant Nkrumahist”.

He said he was picked up from the streets of Seikwa in the Tain District of the Bono region by the Young Pioneers at a time when other children had gone to school and was subsequently sent to his relatives, who were warned that his parents had to send him to school or face prosecution.

He attributed his eventual opportunity to receive formal education to the introduction of free compulsory universal basic education under Dr Nkrumah.

He said the experience had motivated him to study the works of Dr Nkrumah and contribute to keeping his legacy alive.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah said he was therefore particularly pained when efforts were made to reduce Dr Nkrumah to the level of other personalities who contributed to the struggle for Ghana's independence.

He argued that Dr Nkrumah deserved to be recognised distinctly for his role in bringing together the territories that eventually constituted modern Ghana.

He said before Dr Nkrumah came onto the political scene, there was no country known as Ghana, noting that the Gold Coast colony, the Ashanti Kingdom, the Northern Territories and Trans-Volta Togoland existed as separate entities.

According to him, Dr Nkrumah played a central role in bringing the four blocks together to form the Ghana that exists today.

“No other politician and no other nationalist can compare themselves to the one and only Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah.”