By Bright Ntramah
President Akufo-Addo says former Prime Minister of Ghana, Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia, was a far-sighted political thinker that Ghana and for that matter, Africa ever had.
Speaking at the launch of an audiobook compiled by the children of late Professor K.A. Busia, entitled “The Prof”: A Heart of Faith, from “Poor Boy” to Prime Minister”, President Akufo-Addo said but for the overthrow of Prime Minister Busia in 1972, the story of Ghana’s rural development would have been different from what it is today.
President Akufo-Addo noted that as the eldest child of his father, Edward Akufo-Addo, then President of the 2nd Republic, he had the privilege to witness at first hand, his excellent leadership skills, his vision for the development of the country and the sacrifices he made towards the creation of the free, democratic Ghana in which we now live. He said the overthrow of the second republic and the progress party government, meant that Ghana was deprived of the full impact of his agenda for development.
The audiobook launched is a compilation of letters that Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia exchanged with his life-long friend and mentor, Rev William Whittle. Professor Busia’s daughter, Akosua Busia, authored the book.
Professor Busia was born in Wenchi, in the then Brong Ahafo Region, one of the four Gold Coast Territories, then under British rule and now called Ghana. He gained his first degree with honours in Medieval and Modern History from the University of London. He then went on to study at University College, Oxford, where he was the college’s first African student. Busia served as a district commissioner from 1942 to 1949 and was appointed the first lecturer in African Studies. He became the first African to occupy a chair at the University College of the Gold Coast (now the University of Ghana). In 1951, he was elected by the Ashanti Confederacy to the Legislative Council. In 1952, he was leader of the Ghana Congress Party, which later merged with the other opposition parties to form the United Party (UP).
As leader of the opposition against Kwame Nkrumah, he fled the country on the grounds that his life was under threat. He returned to Ghana in March 1966 after Nkrumah’s government was overthrown by the National Liberation Council of General and was appointed as the Chairman of the National Advisory Committee of the NLC. In 1967/68, he served as the Chairman of the Centre for Civic Education. He used this opportunity to promote himself as the next leader. He was also a member of the Constitutional Review Committee. When the NLC lifted the ban on politics, Busia, together with Lawyer Sylvester Kofi Williams and friends, in the defunct UP formed the Progress Party (PP).
In 1969, the PP won the parliamentary elections with 105 of the 140 seats. This paved the way for him to become the next Prime Minister. Busia continued with the NLC’s anti-Nkrumaist stance and adopted a liberalised economic system.
While he was in Britain for a medical check-up, the army under Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong overthrew his government on January 13, 1972. Busia remained in exile in England and returned to Oxford University, where he died from a heart attack in August 1978.
