Ghana’s first President and greatest genius ever once said and I quote: “But also, as I pointed out, that also entails hard work. That new Africa is ready to fight her own battles and show that after all the black man is capable of managing his own affairs.” If you’re a history buff like me, you’ll readily recognize the above quote. It’s taken from Kwame Nkrumah’s 1957 Independence Day Speech—the greatest speech ever written and delivered in Ghanaian geo-politics and rhetorical history. But, not only was it mere rhetoric; it was rhetoric backed with action. He said it. He meant it. He did it. No. He tried doing it and failed. “They” stopped him. When Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, on that fateful day and night of 6th March 1957, climbed onto the podium—flanked by his closest comrades, he had thought out and proceeded to visualize a bright future for Ghana; he wanted to make Ghana self-reliant in everyway imaginable, he wanted to make Ghana the standard-bearer of African Independence and self-development. Alas! He failed. He fell and failed. They pushed him in a non-friendly push in the back and he fell and failed. Long, long before Nkrumah became leader of Government Business and first President of State, there were men; jealous men, who couldn’t stand his name, person, words and actions. They thus planned to help him fall and fail. And fortunately for them, there were a number of evil brains in the Western world, who were prepared to help dispose off one of Africa’s foremost thinkers. And these Ghanaian men who were in consort with the Western world, to some extent, plainly come across as men who never shared Nkrumah’s belief—they could never bring themselves to believe that the black man was and is capable of managing his own affairs. Yes; the Ghanaian Blackman of the 1960s couldn’t even plan and proceed with a political coup without Western aid. All the same, it will be unfortunate not to partly blame the man himself for his fall. So power-drunk and self-centred did he became, so much so that, he was almost a dictator who couldn’t bear the thought of entertaining political opponents. His penchant for wild-goose-chase-dreams was also a playing factor; the infantile idea for a United States of Africa, the over ambitious perception that Ghanaian Independence is meaningless if all of Africa isn’t free, and the man’s political hatred for contemporaries and opponents such as J.B. Danquah (which will always be understandable). Fast forward to 2012, this anti-Nkrumah belief that the Blackman isn’t capable of managing his own affairs is still evident in some Ghanaians and some of our politicians. When you take into consideration the number of contracts which could be taken care of by local businesses but are regularly awarded to foreigners and the sort of political leadership style we, Ghanaians, have been subjected to since 1992, it becomes evident that not all Blackmen are capable of managing their own affairs. And when such blackmen find their way into power, corruption is likely to flow wawa-style in accord with leadership failures on a gargantuan scale.