"UGCC Wasn't A Political Party Until Nkrumah Arrived"�Kwesi Pratt

A leading member of the Convention Peoples Party and a member of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah�s Centenary Planning Committee, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, has argued that until Osagyefo Nkrumah�s return to the then Gold Coast (Ghana) in 1949, the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) was not a political party. Mr. Pratt minced no words when he declared that the UGCC was only a movement that was later significantly transformed into a political party under the able leadership and political ideology of Dr. Nkrumah. �The UGCC had only six (6) branches when Nkrumah came to Ghana, but he managed to increase it to six hundred (600) branches within a space of three months, transforming the UGCC from a movement to a political party, which he later abandoned to form his own party, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP),� he said. Contributing in a panel discussion on PEACEFM�s �Kokrokoo�, Mr. Pratt said the call for a Founders� Day instead of a Founder�s Day, is �a false argument as they (Big Six) have been given proper recognition by the naming of some roundabouts after them and also having their portraits printed on the currency (cedi).� He strongly asserted that it is an anti- Nkrumaist propaganda calculated to undermine the visionary leader�s prominence, and warned that any attempt to vilify Dr. Nkrumah will result in dire consequences. �The discussion now is a deliberate, very well calculated and orchestrated one, it�s the same anti-Nkrumaist propaganda�You want to re-write history, but it will never happen in this country, never happen in this country�One of the ways of undermining Nkrumah is this Founder�s Day argument. It has no merit�With the greatness of Nkrumah; you don�t have to be an Nkrumaist to accept his greatness. You don�t even have to be a Ghanaian to accept his greatness. It�s a fact of history. And in fact, kicking against Nkrumah is like using your bare foot to kick against a rock. You can only hurt yourself,� he said.