The Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration in 2018 laid before Parliament a Public Holidays Amendment Bill by the Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery, and passed to amend the Public Holiday Act, 2001 in 2018. The new amendment bill quashed three public holidays and introduced two new holidays.
The affected holidays were the Republic Holiday which fell on July 1, African Union (AU) Holiday which fell on May 25 and the Founder’s Day which was on Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday, September 21.
With today marking the 2nd Founders Day holiday since it was enacted, let’s look at 4 things you must know about this holiday.
1 . August 4 was made a public holiday in place of Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day because the real fight for Ghana’s independence started on August 4, 1947, when some Ghanaian patriots like George Alfred Grant, J.B. Danquah, R.A. Awoonor-Williams, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and some chiefs formed the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) founded on the foundation of the Fante Confederacy of 1868 and Aboriginal Rights Protection Society of 1897 for the independence of Ghana.
2 . It is in memory of the successive generations of Ghanaians who contributed to the liberation of the country from colonial rule.
3 . August 4 was chosen as the date for Founders’ Day by the Akufo-Addo-led administration as it marks two important events in Ghana’s history. It is the date for the formation of the Aborigines’ Rights Protection Society by John Mensah Sarbah in 1897, and the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) in 1947 by J.B. Danquah and George Alfred “Paa” Grant.
4 . It is a mark of reverence for the current generation to work “to free ourselves from the economic arrangement designed by the former colonial power to serve its particular purpose at the time which continues to bind us.
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