THE story of the least educated cabinet minister in the history of Ghana yet the most albeit controversial and toughest man in Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s regime
KROBO EDUSEI
In the Kwabre area of Ashanti, on December 6, 1915,
Krobo Edusei was born in the little village of Ampabane. He came into politics
off the streets. His only qualification was a middle school leaving
certificate. He attended Government Boys Middle School in Kumasi, Ghana's
Ashanti Region. After completing elementary school, he began working as a debt
collector and cub reporter for the Ashanti Pioneers in 1942. Later, he traveled
to the remote Ashanti districts selling drugs on the streets.
According to many who knew him, Krobo Edusei was
intelligent, devoted, and diligent—though he could sometimes be mischievous. The
Ashanti area, the opposition's bastion at the time, is credited with Nkrumah's
survival and relative success. Even
years after President Nkrumah and the CPP were overthrown, Krobo Edusei's
popularity was widely acknowledged in the Ashanti region, a stronghold of the opposition, and
throughout the nation. Notably, he served in Nkrumah's initial cabinet
following independence. He has a sharp sense of humor, common sense reasoning,
and wit. Despite being the most controversial and well-liked minister, Edusei
had the least education.
To counter the chiefs, Krobo Edusei established his
tribunals to uphold the boycott throughout Nii Bonne's campaign. The Convention
People's Party (CPP) depended heavily on Krobo Edusei's followers. The Ashanti
Youth Association was established in 1947 by him and several other young men in
Kumasi to challenge the Ashanti Confederacy's authority.
He was chosen to represent Kumasi North West in the
legislative assembly during the first general election in 1951, and he later
rose to the position of chief whip within the CPP. He was assigned to the
Ministry of Justice's managerial secretary position in 1952. But two years later,
in 1954, he was fired from his position due to unfavorable conclusions in the
Korsah report. Following the 1956 election, he was appointed as a minister
without a portfolio when President Nkrumah constituted his first ministry
following independence. He was named minister of communication four months
after the country gained independence in 1957; he only served in that capacity
for three months. In August 1957, he was appointed Minister of the Interior, a
role that was fraught with controversy.
Krobo Edusei lost his position during Nkrumah's
overthrow in 1966 and was ultimately given an 18-month prison sentence. He
participated in Hilla Limann's People's National Party following his release.
After the PNP was overthrown in 1981, he was put in even more prisons. Not long
after his release, he passed away.
(Bing 1968,
Rathbone 2000, Vietta 1999, Kwesi Yankah, FGA 2006)
Some Controversial Utterances were made on various platforms.
Krobo Edusei
suggested to the 1954 National Assembly that the Cocoa Purchasing Company may
have been established in part for political reasons.
“The Cocoa
Purchasing Company is the product of a master brain,
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and it the atomic bomb of the
Convention
People’s Party. As honorable members are aware, the
Prime
Minister in his statements to the CPP told his party
that the organization
decides everything and the Cocoa Purchasing Company is
part of the Organisation of Convention People’s
Party.”
Krobo Edusei:
(Rathbone op. Cit)
As the Interior
Minister, he oversaw internal security and law enforcement. He openly
threatened to deport opposition leaders who dared to disagree, intimidating
them with threats of violence. Therefore, the public was introduced to the
standard deportation formula shortly after this appointment. The Time magazine
in 1962 described him as “ a squat bombastic bully from Ashanti, and
Nkrumah’s eminence noir in the cabinet.”
On December 2, 1957, the Daily Graphic published an article speculating
that Krobo Edusei might have banished chiefs who were uncooperative inside.
“There are
other chiefs and politicians whose presence in
Ashanti is not conducive to public good and
as Minister of
Interior, I will see to it that they are
deported from Ashanti
Forthwith.”
Krobo Edusei:
(Daily Graphic , 2nd December 1957;
Rathbone 2000:117)
He made the following suggestion at a Bukom rally:…“ Nsawam is now too good for the opposition party……..I will arrest them
and damn the Western press…the press has no vote…..we will impound all their
passports.”
(Rathbone 2000:127)
One of Krobo Edusei's most well-known remarks was made in an attempt to
illustrate the influence of the CPP-led legislature. It was said that during a
political rally, he boasted about how strong the CPP-led parliament is and how,
among other things, "the CPP can do anything except turn a man into a
woman."
Edusei on the Floor of Parliament.
During parliamentary debates, he enthusiastically participated and was
arguably most effective when he made references to Ashanti history. At times,
rumors about Krobo Edusei's low level of education and those of the verandah
boys surfaced, especially among the opposition in parliament. Every time this
occurred, Krobo would very skillfully respond by referencing his academic
standing.
Let's listen to Krobo Edusei on January 21, 1957, at the second reading
of the IDC Amendment Bill. At that time, a parliamentarian representing Sekyere
West had expressed disapproval of the selection of members for statutory
boards.
“The Honorable member said the CPP Government does not
appoint intelligent members to serve on
statutory boards.
I am surprised at this because Mr. J.C Akorsa
is supposed to be
one of the intelligent persons in that
constituency, and I dare
say that in the realm of practical economics,
he has no peers in
this country. None among the opposition dare
face him. As I
said, honorable members of the opposition here
always think
that when a person is not B.L or Ph.D., B.Sc
and so on and so
fourth, he is not qualified to be a director
of a company.
(Parliamentary Debates 21st January 1957:187)
[interruption- Mr. Joe Appiah: Who says So?..]
If I went overseas to read
law, I assure honorable members
here that I would not take as long as fourteen
years to qualify
[uproar!].
A man has to apply practical common sense to be a good
politician. After all, I have
never been to a secondary school; never
have I been to a university,
but Mr. Speaker, when I stand up to speak
I have command of the English
language. I speak with practical common
sense, and to the point.
Therefore, as I have already said, it is not a
question of graduating from a
university which determines whether
one should or should not be a
managing director of a public corporation.
It is a well-known maxim that politicians
are born not made.”
Krobo Edusei:
(Parliamentary Debates 21st
January 1957:188)
An opposition member allegedly questioned Edusei's
competence and comprehension of the Coussey Committee report on November 13,
1958, during their debate of the Constitutional Proposals.
“ The Honorable Minister without portfolio is under a
delusion that
the opposition members have come to request
something from the
Prime Minister. He must be given to
understand by his more educated
colleagues of the cabinet that the conference
was not the outcome of a
request by the opposition to the Prime
Minister. It was a conference.
Otherwise the
Hon. Minister without a portfolio……..”
Dr. I.B
Asafu-Adjaye:
Krobo Edusei cut
Asafu-Adjaye off in the middle of his discourse…
“ The Honorable Member for Juabeng-Edweso is my elder
brother.
I do not want to say or do anything to
disgrace him. But I just want
to tell him that as far as practical common
sense is concerned, I am
twenty times better than him. I have not had
a secondary education.
I am an elementary scholar and some honorable
members also are.
I did not have
an opportunity to go to a secondary school. The honorable
Member for Juaben-Edweso had the opportunity
to go to a secondary
school in Calabar, where his father had to go because
of tribal wars.”
Krobo Edusei:
In response to
Krobo Edusei's allegations that Asanteman offered scholarships based only on
nepotism, Mr. R.R. Amponsah contested those assertions. Edusei Krobo
retaliated..
“
Scholarships ought to be awarded to people from poor homes.
The Asanteman Council awarded a scholarship
to Mr. Victor Owusu
not because he was too clever, and not that he was bright but
because
he was a nephew of Agonahene. They awarded so
many scholarships to
their relatives and kinsmen. There were
others who should have been
awarded scholarships but they were not. Was
I awarded a scholarship?
[Uproar]
Nobody in this country was born stupid.
Everybody has some basic
knowledge, but if one does not get the chance
then one is looked
down upon. But if I had had secondary
education, and continued
my studies in the United Kingdom, and
returned, I would have been
one of the best lawyers in this country.’’
Krobo Edusei:
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