Obliteration Of Kwame Nkrumah

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 17

Obliteration Of Kwame Nkrumah

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) ACCRA, February 28. The legend of Kwame Nkrumah, President of Ghana until five days ago, is being systematically crushed.

He used to be everywhere. His face looked out from newspaper pages, gazed down from office walls, stared in stone and bronze at people he ruled for nine years.

Now his larger-than-life-size statue in front of Parliament House has vanished—as if it had never existed.

His portraits, showing his familiar brocade blouse and high-ly-coloured kente cloth robe, have been torn from their frames and destroyed.

The fluorescent lighting Which indicated that an important traffic roundabout was called Kwame Nkrumah circle has disappeared. His favourite brainchild, •the ideological institute at Winneba to which his Cabinet were sent last year for courses; has been closed. Hundreds of copies of his books on neocolonialism have been tossed on bonfires.

The coup that toppled Kwame Nkrumah was today

thought likely to give a big impetus to Ghana’s economy. Western diplomats believed there was a good chance of the country getting both short and long-term credits which Nkrumah was unable to obtain either from the reluctance of big imparting firms to give credit or from Nkrumah’s refusal to accept the conditions placed on the loans, the diplomats said. They were particularly impressed by the composition of the economic committee set up by the military liberation council and composed of financial! experts in the civil ser-

vice whose warnings were rarely heeded under Nkrumah. Shop shelves have been half empty for over a year now ;although the situation did improve slightly last October when special import licences were issued for the African summit conference.

Western diplomats believe Ghana could get a loan from the International Monetary Fund fairly quickly if the new government decided to put an end to prestige investments. The biggest foreign currency drains in the past were Ghana’s big diplomatic representations abroad and Ghana Airlines, which lost £7,000,000 last year. A further undisclosed drain on the reserves was caused ’by Nkrumah’s support for subversive and revolutionary movements, the diplomats say

A team from the International Monetary Fund visited Ghana last year and was thought to have asked for a curb to be put on foreign exchange spending—a request that Nkrumah did not agree to. Diplomats pointed out that

last year's negotiations were with Ghanians who now compose the military government’s economic committee. They said this was an additional reason why a loan could go through quickly. A loan from the fund would probably be relatively small, but it would restore confidence in the country and could lead to renewed influx of aid and private capital. Country Quiet Meanwhile the country is quiet. But soldiers still guard key points in the capital, including the airport and cable and wireless installation, as the hunt for associates of Dr. Nkrumah goes on. More than 500 political prisoners have been freed and their cells taken over by Ministers, M.P.s, and party functionaries who have been rounded up.