Today marks 50 years of overthrow of Ghana's first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah

February 24, 2016 marks exactly 50 years since the Nkrumah led CPP Government was ousted in a coup d'état in 1966. 

The February 24 coup which was the first of its kind in Post-Colonial Ghana was carried out while Nkrumah was on a state visit to Hanoi, Vietnam. 

The National Liberation Council, NLC, took over the administration of the country, truncating the laudable policies of initiated by the Nkrumah regime. 

Before the coup, there was an upsurge in assassination attempts on Nkrumah’s life. 

At the time, Nkrumah’s overthrow was rationalised as an attempt to bring sanity to the world, and an attempt to tighten the screws. 

In April 1972, Nkrumah died in Bucharest, Romania, where he had gone for medical treatment. 

Since his death, Africa has had a string of colourless figures as leaders. 

Meanwhile, Dr Yao Graham of the Third World Network will join a panel of academics to discuss “Ghana’s Day of Shame, 50 Years On, Pursuing A National Development Agenda” at the Accra International conference Centre Wednesday. 

The other panelists will be Professor Raymond Osei of the University of Cape Coast. 

The event which marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous 1966 Coup sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America will be chaired by Kwesi Pratt, of the Socialist forum of Ghana (SFG). 

It is co-sponsored by the CPP and the SFG and is scheduled to start at 4:00pm.

GBC