Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, had a strong desire to return to power after his overthrow in 1966. However, his plans were sabotaged by his own appointees who went down with him. Nkrumah’s key officials were afraid that their properties would be confiscated by the government if they couldn’t explain the source of their income used in acquiring them. Many of these officials turned themselves into double agents and informants for the intelligence services of the ruling junta.
While in exile, Dr. Nkrumah recalled the handshakes and expressions of good wishes from his former associates, little did he know they were plotting against him. He went on a peace mission to Hanoi, Vietnam, but could not return following a coup in his absence. The fallen political cohorts back home in Ghana failed him, and his building blocs collapsed in the dreadful circumstances that ensued his overthrow.
Dr. Nkrumah was quoted as saying, “if Nkrumah’s top political associates in Ghana had not sold their consciences for bread and butter, the ex-President would have regained power in less than a year after his overthrow.” His political associates who had enjoyed life in positions of substance and trust under his leadership back in Ghana before the coup that dethroned him sabotaged his efforts to return to power.
The African Union adjudged Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as Africa’s personality of the century, ahead of South Africa’s freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, and other continental stalwarts. In 1991, a mausoleum was built for him in central Accra, where his remains were relocated for final interment. His wife, Fathia, an Egyptian, was also buried in the same mausoleum in Accra after she died in Cairo in 2007.
The mausoleum is now a haven for tourists who come to pay their respects to the man who led Ghana to independence and was one of the leaders of Pan-Africanism. Dr. Nkrumah’s legacy lives on in Ghana and across the continent, inspiring generations to fight for the freedom and dignity of their people.