Danquah-Busia tradition also sabotaged me – Mahama weeps over Nkrumah’s overthrow

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that after enduring the campaign of slander and sabotage by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) of the Danquah-Busia tradition, he totally empathises with Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah who, he said, suffered a similar fate until he was overthrown in a Coup D’etat on February 24, 1966.

In a message to mark the 57th anniversary of Ghana’s first coup d’état, John Mahama stated that the Danquah-Busia tradition, while engaged in a vicious campaign of falsehood and calumny against Nkrumah, worked in concert with external agencies to overthrow him, adding that from his personal experience as President, he fully understands what Nkrumah went through.

“57 years ago today, 24th February 1966, the Danquah-Busiah political tradition conspired with external intelligence agencies to initiate Ghana’s first coup d’etat, which toppled the government of our first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

This coup was achieved through a conscious and constant campaign of falsehood and calumny.

As a former President of Ghana who has also been at the receiving end of the Danquah-Busia tradition’s campaign of slander and sabotage, I can empathise completely with the quandary President Nkrumah found himself in,” he wrote.

He added that far from ‘liberating’ the country as promised, the perpetrators of the coup instead plunged the country into a nightmare that destroyed Nkrumah’s vision for the country and Africa at large.

“The perpetrators woefully failed to liberate Ghana as they had promised. They instead initiated a long nightmare that destroyed Nkrumah’s vision for Ghana and Africa,” he lamented.

Ghana’s founding President Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown on February 24, 1966, by the military and the police. The National Liberation Council(NLC), a junta, took over the reins of power.