Ghana marks Nkrumah's 117th birthday as Mahama and Opoku Prempeh call for unity beyond party

Pinned summary · as of 06:44

Ghana observed Founder's Day on Monday, 21 September 2026, the 117th anniversary of the birth of Kwame Nkrumah, with President John Dramani Mahama asking citizens to keep building the country he helped found. At the NkrumahFest in Nkroful, in the Western Region, the late leader's family and a former New Patriotic Party running mate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, made their own appeals for his legacy to be honoured.

What we know

• Founder's Day was marked on 21 September 2026, which coincided with the 117th anniversary of Kwame Nkrumah's birth.
• In a message shared on social media that Monday, President Mahama called on citizens, including those in the diaspora, to find strength in Nkrumah's vision, and to back the government's Resetting Ghana Agenda. He said Ghana won political independence under Nkrumah but that the wider goal of a prosperous and fair society is still unfinished.
• The President also appealed for national cohesion. “I charge us all to rise above division, embrace selfless patriotism, and work tirelessly toward economic freedom and social justice,” Mr Mahama said.
• Members of Nkrumah's family, led by his daughter Samia Yaba Nkrumah, came back to Nkroful, a community in the Western Region's Ellembelle District, for this year's NkrumahFest, which marked his 117th birthday.
• Ms Nkrumah asked forgiveness from residents of Nkroful for the relatives' years away and tied it to the pain of what her father went through in politics, among it an attempt on his life. She said the relatives now want to help keep his ideas alive among young Ghanaians and contribute to national development.
• Dr Opoku Prempeh, who also spoke at the festival, asked Ghanaians to set partisan politics aside when remembering what Nkrumah did for Ghana, the continent and the wider world. He called Nkrumah a thinker and liberation icon, and said in his words that the founder's outlook was “expansive, visionary and fiercely Pan-African”.
• Dr Opoku Prempeh's appearance followed a 2024 comparison he drew between Nkrumah and former President Nana Akufo-Addo, which caused controversy. He later apologised and clarified what he meant.
• Businessman and philanthropist Alhaji Seidu Agongo argued in an opinion piece that the African Continental Free Trade Area, which has its headquarters in Accra, can be read as a present-day continuation of the unity drive Nkrumah led.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The NDC National Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, was reported to have said at the NkrumahFest unveiling on Saturday, 19 September, that Nkrumah alone deserves the title of founder and that other independence figures should not be raised to his level. “No other politician and no other nationalist can compare themselves to the one and only Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah,” he said. Only Rainbow Radio Online carried this account.
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  The Vaultz News reported that the Akufo-Addo administration in 2019 changed the Public Holidays Act in 2019 so that 4 August became Founders' Day, with 21 September renamed Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, and that Mr Mahama later undid this through a new law. It added that the Convention People's Party accused the then government of distorting history, and that Mr Mahama was in New York for the UN General Assembly. Other reports have not confirmed these details.
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  The Custodian reported that Dr Opoku Prempeh, at the Kumasi event where he was named the NPP's running mate, had ranked Mr Akufo-Addo above every earlier head of state for what he did for the country. It said the words were “not even your Kwame Nkrumah”. No other report gives this detail of the earlier remarks.
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  Onua Online reported that Ashanti Regional Minister Dr Frank Amoakohene offered his region as a venue for a later festival, and that the 2026 event ran under a Pan-African unity theme built around Nkrumah's 117th birthday. These details have not been confirmed elsewhere.
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  The Custodian reported that Kenyan lawyer Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba told the Nkroful gathering that presidents and finance ministers across the continent should read Nkrumah's writings when looking for answers to Africa's economic problems. No other report carries his remarks.
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  The New Crusading Guide reported that Sir Samuel Esson Jonah, who chairs the governing council of UCC as its chancellor, told the start of the 15th lecture series named after Nkrumah on Thursday, 17 September, that Ghana honours Nkrumah as an icon but neglects to teach his ideas. “Independence without industry is a flag without a factory,” he said. This has not been reported by others.
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  The Insight News Online reported a statement from a left-wing group, the Socialist Movement of Ghana's Accra branch, marking the anniversary, which called Nkrumah's legacy an unfinished programme of economic independence and African unity and pressed for reparations. The group's positions come from that one statement.

Why it matters for Ghana

A sitting President and a leading figure from the opposition camp both asked Ghanaians to treat Nkrumah's memory as something above party lines. Mr Mahama also tied the anniversary to the Resetting Ghana Agenda, linking a day of remembrance to the government's stated aims on economic freedom and social justice. For Nkroful and the wider Ellembelle District, the festival and the family's return placed a small community in the Western Region at the centre of the national commemoration.