THE CONVENTION People’s Party (CPP) would be turning 70 on Wednesday June 12, 2019, with 53 years of not tasting political power.
CPP was founded by the late President Kwame Nkrumah on June 12, 1949 and spent about eight years helping to fight for independence for Ghana then Gold Coast.
Ghana gained independence on March 6, 1957 from Britain, with the CPP’s founder becoming Ghana’s President.
He stayed in power for about nine years before he was overthrown in February 1966.
It would be recalled that leaders of the 1966 military coup, including army officers Colonel E.K. Kotoka, Major A.A. Afrifa, Lieutenant General (retired) J.A. Ankra, and Police Inspector General J.W.K. Harlley, had justified their takeover by alleging that the CPP administration under Dr. Nkrumah was abusive and corrupt.
In all, CPP spent about 17 years fighting for independence and being in power or in charge of affairs of Ghana, and 53 of being an ‘underdog’ opposition party.
According to a statement issued by the Acting General Secretary of CPP, James Kwabena Bomefeh Jnr, the yearlong celebration is under the theme: “Building Consensus Through Tolerance and Sincerity.”
The celebration would begin with deprived and abandoned children with disabilities from the Osu Children’s Home and the Children’s Ward of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital on Tuesday, June 11.
On June 12 the date of the formation of the CPP, it said, there would be a cake cutting ceremony at the party’s headquarters in Accra.
