Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has been credited for introducing free education and other social interventions that facilitated the building of the human resource capacities of Ghana. Dr Raymond Osei, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Cape Coast, who made this known in Sekondi said: "Ghana lacked the requisite human resource at independence and there was the need to develop a critical group that could assist and transform the country from a colony to a state." Dr Osei was delivering a lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Campus lectures, organized by the Students Representation Council of Takoradi Polytechnic in collaboration with the All African Students Union at the weekend. It was on the theme: "His ideas, his vision, his times and the record." According to him, Ghana could not have adopted the capitalist ideology at independence because the country did not have the people who were financially capable to follow such an ideology. He noted that socialism is almost the same as the traditional value system in Ghana that views every person in society as brethren. Dr Osei said socialism was ideal for many developing nations since it created a sense of belonging, giving them control over their resources. He explained that without socialism, it would have been difficult for Ghana to achieve and build its own foundation for accelerated development. "Even today, most capitalist governments and countries still promote socialism with the provision of healthcare, public transport systems and social security to ease the burden of capitalism on the people," he stressed. Dr Osei noted that no successive government had broken the development record of Dr Nkrumah during his nine years of socialist rule. Minister of Communications Haruna Iddrisu, noted that though the United States (US) preaches capitalism, it has several socialist ideologies in its system of governance. He said the establishment of the Ghana Education Trust schools, state corporations, roads, hospitals and factories were all aimed at making the country self-sufficient, less reliable on foreign countries and assisting in creating employment opportunities for Ghanaians. Mr Iddrisu said the focus of Dr Nkrumah towards the unification of the African Continent was aimed at uniting the region against foreign powers and influences. Source: GNA