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Greedy Komla Agbdli Gbedemah and his rascal side-kick Kofi Abrefa Busia (2)
By: Prof Lungu
January 25, 2017
Repeat, it is imperative that all critically-minded
Ghanaians move beyond coup-plotter narratives. Without doubt, Gbedemah
contributed to the initial successes of Nkrumah's CPP. However, we must examine
actual records related to the CPP government under Kwame Nkrumah, all the way to
the end. And, whatever you find during your search, humbly consider the idea
that negatives are never a reflection on any group of people. Rather, they are a
poor and sad reflection on the individuals at the center of the stories they
created, managed, massaged for their own selfish purposes, and those others they
used to achieve those purposes.
For instance, as the record in the essay
below shows, even the imprisonment of Gbedemah was staged by the British for
their own purpose. In a Daily Graphic feature (Issue 547, August 9 1952), most
likely directed by Gbedemah (and/or the British), they make sure to project
Gbedemah as natural leader after Nkrumah. And so, under the "Prison Graduate No.
1" caption, they made sure to teach that "...To many Africans and Europeans,
Gbedemah symbolizes all that is best in the CPP...". However, oddly, they
ignored the fact Gbedemah in fact owned one of the biggest poultry farms in
Ghana. All this, in the heat of the struggle for Ghana's independence. Near the
time Gbedemah was appointed Finance Minister, he sold his businesses and
secretly invested the proceeds in a bank in Geneva).
Continuing from Part
1, .....
"THE TRUTH ABOUT KOMLA GBEDEMAH BY A NON-GHANAIAN INTELLECTUAL",
1964.......
READ:
"" THE PRISON GRADUATE "":
"The British
are good experts at planting their agents' in the governments of other
countries. Placing their stakes on Gbedemah they decided to create a false
nationalistic nimbus around him. With that aim in view, they put him in prison
in 1949 for ""trying to instigate a rebellion"".
We do not know the
contents of the conversations held by the representatives of the British
authorities with Gbedemah in prison.
What is known for certain is that
very soon Gbedemah was set free. On the day of his release from prison the
headquarters of the Convention People's Party was raided by the police while
Nkrumah and other leaders of the Party were arrested. Since that time Gbedemah
calls himself a ""prison graduate"". In Nkrumah's absence, he became leader of
the Convention People's Party, head of its printed organ-the Accra Evening News,
and carried out preparations for municipal elections. It was very strange that
in those stormy and dangerous times everything
went on so smoothly with
Gbedemah. It was literally before the very eyes of the British authori-ties that
Gbedemah carried on his work for which other people would have paid with their
lives while he, Gbedemah, remained unscathed. He even managed to organise
regular correspondence with Nkrumah who was then languishing in prison and who
thought at the time that only he and Gbede-mah were in on it.
THE BRITISH
COUNTED ON A VERY SIMPLE THING:
They wanted to remove Nkrumah in whom
they saw a dangerous enemy who did not wish to come to any compromise and create
the seeming of independence in the form of a self-governing colony under the
supervision of a governor. In this farce the ""prison graduate"" was assigned
the post of premier of the ephemeral Gold. Coast Government. The intelligence
service supported this plan and gave
him a loyalty certificate. The
British authorities did not interfere with Gbede-mah's activities and were by no
means abashed when the Convention People's Party won at the municipal elections
in 1950. They thought that everything was under control and that nothing
unexpected could ever happen.
BUSINESS AGAIN:
The people of the
Gold Coast have passed their own judgement, however. The people demanded that
Nkrumah be set free. Unrest spread through- out the entire country. It was in
Nkrumah, and not in Gbedemah, that they saw their leader and the triumph at the
elections gave them new strength in their struggle for the liberation of the
leader of the victorious party. Having no wish to make a martyr
of
Nkrumah, the British thought it best to set him free and even reconcile
themselves to his appoint-ment to the Cabinet as the chief spokesman for
government affairs. Gbedemah had no other choice, but to be satisfied with a
seat in the Legislative Assembly and the post of Minister of Health and Labour.
In 1952 when Nkrumah succeeded in securing British consent to introduce the
post of Prime Minister instead of the vague title of the chief spokesman for
government affairs, Gbedemah became Minister of Trade and Industry and follow-
ing the 1954 elections, received the portfolio of Minister of Finance.
It
should be mentioned here that since the time of Nkrumah's release from prison,
Gbedemah's promotion was hampered. He did not succeed in becoming either the
first man among the nationalists of the Gold Coast or even Nkrumah's closest
associate. In the following years Gbedemah always occupied ministerial posts,
but he never played the role of the second man in the Republic, except during a
very short period in the summer of 1961, when Nkrumah and his closest followers
made their trip abroad. The British still persisted in supporting Gbedemah's
ambitious plans and mercenary schemes. But eventually they no longer pinned
their main hopes on him in their struggle against Nkrumah. London was more
impressed by the leader of the opposition Dr. Busia who seemed to the British
more significant a figure than "" the prison graduate "".
Gbedemah was
afraid that he would lose political weight and would be reduced to an ordinary,
though well-versed, informant.
Incidentally, as a Minister of Trade and
Finance he was in a position to do much more. And indeed he did everything the
British authorities asked him to. He did his best, of course, under all kinds of
pretexts to prevent the Africanization of the state
apparatus and
arranged deals profitable for foreign businessmen but ruinous to the Gold Coast.
He did not forget his own business and deposited large sums of money in his
accounts whenever trans-actions were profitable.
Just one "" operation ""
of buying 24 locomotives from the Swiss businessman Johann Bernard Litscher
brought him 10,000 Ghanaian pounds transferred to his account by the Henschel
Firm in one of the Swiss banks. And yet the future worried Gbedemah. He did not
share Nkrumah's socialist ideas although he had some vague notion about
sociology and particularly socialism. But being a businessman by nature he
believed in capitalism, in a society based on private initiative. While clearing
his way for attaining the ministerial post in Accra he thought that his
qualities of an adroit businessman and his connections in the British business
circles would prove useful to him in the future capitalist Ghana.
He saw
very quickly, however, that Nkrumah tried to create welfare for all and not just
for a handful of the government elite. He understood then that their roads
diverge. By 1957, when Ghana declared its independence, he lost all hope of
find- ing any political contacts with Nkrumah and noticing a lack of interest on
the part of the British in himself began to think of additional sources of
increasing his personal wealth.
In 1957 Gbedemah established his own
private business in Ghana-a poultry farm at which he employed over 50 Ghanaian
labourers. The farm brought annually 5 million eggs and 300 tons of fresh-frozen
chicken meat. The Finance Minister obtained over 40,000 Ghanaian pounds a year
by selling eggs alone. Gbedemah became partner in the Mallam Issa Transport
Company and a number of smaller enterprises. Using his ministerial post, he
became the initiator and participant of
puzzling financial machinations,
both in Ghana and abroad. Notwithstanding considerable profits Gbedemah received
through his business, his thirst for money was not fully satisfied.
THE
NEW PATRON:
In 1958 Gbedemah went to the U.S. where he negotiated with
the American Government on some aspects of technical assistance to Ghana and a
loan for the Volta River Project. It should be pointed out that by that time the
Americans took very great interest in the young Republic and Gbedemah's arrival,
whose leanings towards the West were well known, proved quite an asset for
Washington.
Negotiations ended successfully, not for Ghana naturally, but
for the U.S. and Gbedemah. The latter understood that apart from the British,
there were other generous supporters with their hand-outs. Besides, certain
conditions of carrying through the Volta project spelled very great
opportunities for Gbedemah's personal enrich- ment. American businessmen, in
turn, were very pleased with Gbedemah.
Ghana's Finance Minister
demonstrated a rare understanding of their interests, and agreed to defend in
the Cabinet a number of terms favourable for American business circles, such as
the joint construction project of an aluminum plant in the vicinity of the Volta
river with subsequent transfer of the controlling interest to the Americans,
granting the "" Star Kissed "" Co. a monopoly on catching the tuna-fish in
Ghana's territorial waters, the use of the local, in other words, cheap labour,
etc. In general, the Ghanaian Minister proved quite a tractable man who agreed
to meet in Accra with Allan Dulles's agent as a confirmation of his loyalty to
the U.S.
Great was the astonishment of Gbedemah when several days after
his return from the U.S. his personal assistant, Victor de Grand Brempong,
entered his study and gave him the first instructions on behalf of his overseas
boss. Under these instruc- tions Gbedemah was to compromise Nkrumah and ensure
conditions for his overthrow..........//....".
.........//....".
To be continued.....
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SUBJ: Greedy Komla Agbdli Gbedemah
and his rascal side-kick Kofi Abrefa Busia!, Part 2, re-post of "THE TRUTH ABOUT
KOMLA GBEDEMAH BY A NON-GHANAIAN INTELLECTUAL", 1964, with commentary by Prof
Lungu.
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