Campaigners are hoping to have the new Kumasi International Airport renamed in honour of Baffour Osei Akoto, the brain behind the National Liberation Movement (NLM).
The Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Ernest Owusu-Dapaa, who is the latest to add his voice to this call said the late Asante linguist who fought for multi-party democracy in Ghana has not received the necessary recognition by the state.
“It would not be bad if the Kumasi International Airport was named after him. “I don’t think Baffour Akoto did anything inferior,” Owusu-Dapaa said as he mounted a strong defense for his remarks while talking to the Daily Graphic.
“Baffour Akoto has actually distinguished himself with the nationalist struggle and if you look at the big six, all have national assets named after them and some other people. I don’t know if because Baffour Akoto wasn’t adequately lettered…, he had education but a very limited education. So that is why I think that Ghanaian governments have given him proper recognition over the years,” he observed.
Lectures
Dr. Owusu-Dapaa made the call on Thursday, September 1, 2022, when he delivered a lecture to mark the 20th anniversary of the passing of Baffour Osei Akoto in Kumasi. The lecture was on the theme: “Human rights activism and freedom in modern Ghana – the role of Baffour Osei Akoto.”
Paying tribute to the man many say is one of the leading human rights activists of yesteryears in Ghana, Dr. Owusu-Dapaa said: “the nation has not been fair to him.”
The Dean further called on Ghanaians not to take the human rights and freedom being enjoyed now for granted.
He said this freedom was fought for by people including Baffour Osei Akoto who had to sacrifice resources, freedom, and prestige just to ensure that.
He said the current democratic dispensation has survived 30 years without any truncation,” and many of us take it for granted.
“But this has been incremental progress from very sacrificial efforts made by some people including Baffour Osei Akoto who had to suffer personal discomfort. “For that matter, the human rights that we have now, we have to do everything to make sure that our constitution remains intact,” he said.
The man Baffour Osei Akoto
Baffour Osei Akoto was a traditional ruler who served as the Manhyia palace’s chief linguist for nearly 60 years.
He served under Otumfuo Tutu Agyemang Prempeh II, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II and Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
In 1954, he organised disgruntled members of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) from Asanteman to form the NLM which later became the United Party (UP) where the current New Patriotic Party traces its roots.
His criticisms of the one-party system introduced by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah led to his incarceration for many years under the Preventive Detention Act (PDA).
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH with additional files from Daily Graphic
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