Flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, has dispelled allegations that he is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mole planted in the CPP to make sure the Nkrumahist idea of a united Africa never sees the light of day.
The CPP was Ghana’s governing party from 1957 until it was overthrown in a coup d’état in 1966. Declassified intelligence files confirm Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s overthrow was the result of a conspiracy between Western intelligence agencies and some Ghanaian military officers. The coup was promptly hailed by Western governments, including the U.S.
Allegations of American involvement in the coup d’état arose almost immediately because of the well-known hostility of the U.S. towards CPP's socialist orientation and pan-African activism.
These allegations were subsequently confirmed by declassified U.S. State Department files detailing the CIA’s active undermining of the CPP government and in its eventual illegal overthrow.
Speaking on Ghana Yensom on Accra 100.5fm in an exclusive interview Friday April 1, Mr Greenstreet told host Chief Jerry Forson that allegations that he was a CIA spy “make no sense”.
He said of the charge: “Then they [CIA] will be spending [huge] money,” asking: “So, when I was a candidate in 2004 in Ayawaso West Wuogon, that one too they sponsored it? When I became General Secretary in 2007 in Kumasi, that one too they sponsored it? So, when I became General Secretary again at the Trade Fair site in 2011 for my second four-year term, that one too they sponsored it, or they let me do all those things on my own, and then for the presidential, they came to sponsor?”
“You should know that some things do not make sense, but it is a reality you have to face in this game or this pursuit of service or what you want to do.
“Look at what they did to Jerry John Rawlings when he was in power, look at what they did to Hilla Limann. Look at what they said about President Kufour and now what they are saying about John Dramani Mahama. Do they find it easy as leaders? You will never find it easy. … They say, ‘Uneasy sits the head that wears the crown,” so, you have to take it; it is part of the profession that we are engaged in,” he said.
Mr Greenstreet noted that to deal with such issues, he goes back to remind his supporters of what he stands for.
“Every time you deal with issues like that you always go back and remind the people what you stand for, what you are coming to do on their behalf. Remind them that you have a track-record of honesty and of service and of the beliefs of your party’s ideals to solve the problems, and then you will see that they themselves will know that any story that has been told is not truthful.”
He said the CPP, despite the allegations against him, will continue to work hard with “our organisation at the grassroots, we will continue sending our message of peace and of love and of service to the people of this nation”.
He was hopeful that the CPP’s renewed unity, strategies, commitments, and message will resonate with Ghanaians in the November polls.
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