Ghanaian
statesman and retired Diplomat, Dr. K. B. Asante has described as “unnecessary”
the celebration of Founders Day as a public holiday. He argues that the day
could have been put to better use without declaring it a public holiday. Dr.
Asante, who worked as secretary to Dr. Nkrumah, explained that a day in
honour of a hard working personality like Dr Kwame Nkrumah should not have been
a holiday. The Founders Day was instituted by the late President John Evans
Atta Mills in 2010 and was set aside to celebrate the birthday, life and legacy
of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. In an interview with Citi News,
K.B. Asante called on government to scrap the Founders Day holiday. According
to K. B. Asante, Ghanaians “should celebrate him [Nkrumah] properly” by
reporting to work at 7:30 am which was the scheduled time Dr. Nkrumah reported
to work. He recalled that “we used to start work at 7:30 am in Nkrumah’s time
and he was on time. You never hear the siren on the streets taking the
President to work at 10:00 when we are supposed to start working at 8:00; and I
think [we should] do that on Founders Day.” In a sharp rebuttal, a
political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Aggrey Darko, is of
the opinion that celebrating the day as a holiday is not a misplaced priority. Dr.
Darko stated that it is imperative for the general public to make a
self-assessment of their personal contribution to the development of the nation
while celebrating the achievements and sacrifices of Dr. Nkrumah.
Source GW
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