HISTORY: Who Founded The UP, Now NPP?
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OKYEAME AKOTO IS THE FOUNDER AND ROOT OF THE UP TRADITION, NOW NPP
A. Akoto’s Family Relation With Dombo
1.Baffuor Akoto arranged for the marriage of his blood sister, Madam Yaa Ayiwa to his friend Chief S. D. Dombo, a Dagau from Duori in the Upper West Region. Chief S. D. Dombo is the founder of the Northern People’s Party (NPP).
i. The current occupant of the Duori Skin, Na Tikai Dombo, is a son of Dombo and Ayiwa, and for that matter, a nephew of Baffour Akoto.
ii. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is therefore the nephew of Madam Yaa Ayiwa, wife of Chief S. D. Dombo, and therefore, a direct cousin of Na Tikai Dombo, current occupant of the Duori Skin. Thus creating a direct family relation between the Akoto and the Dombo.
B. Birth
2.Okyeame Akoto was born on 22nd February, 1904 and passed away on 3rd September, 2002.
3.The father of Okyeame Baffuor Akoto is Nana Owusu Sekyere, Chief of Ankaase in the Kwabre District near Kumasi. Nana Owusu Sekyere was the grandson of Asantehene Osei Asibey Bonsu (1800-1824).
4.Baffuor Akoto’s mother is Obaapanin Akosua Apeaa of Kwabre Heman. She was a great-granddaughter of Asantehene Osei Yaw Akoto.
i. Highlights (3) and (4) explains that Baffuor Akoto was a great-grandson of two former powerful occupants of the Golden Stool; Asantehene Osei Asibey Bonsu and Asantehene Osei Yaw Akoto, and as a result, makes Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto is a great-great-grandson of two Asante Kings.
C. Social, Traditional and Political Roles
5.Okyeame Baffuor Akoto chaired the Board of the Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club in the 1940s.
i. He is reputed to have given the Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club the red colour for their jersey.
6.Baffour was the great friend of the father of the late Kofi Annan – former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Kobina Annan. Baffuor was the Executor of the Will of Mr. Kobina Annan after his demise.
7.Okyeame Baffuor Akoto served as a senior linguist to three Kings of Asante; Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu Agyemang Prempeh II, Otumfuo Nana Opoku Ware II and Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II.
8.Okyeame Baffour Akoto founded and led a political movement, the National Liberation Movement (NLM), which was joined by stalwarts like J B Danquah, K A Busia, among others.
9.Baffuor Akoto, as the founder and leader of the NLM, in consultation with his Party’s Executives, appointed Dr. K. A. Busia as the leader of the 13 members of his party, NLM in the new Parliament.
10.Okyeame Baffour Akoto led the discussions with Chief S. D. Dombo and the other minority parties in Parliament to make Dr Busia leader of the 31-Member minority in Parliament.
11.NLM together with the Northern People’s Party formed the foundation and nucleus of the United Party (UP) from which the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) is rooted.
12.Baffour Akoto chaired the negotiations which convinced the leadership of the other opposition Parties to come together to form one party to be called the United Party (UP) after the enactment of the Avoidance of Discrimination Act in 1957, thus making Baffuor one of the leading founders of the UP tradition.
13.Baffour Akoto’s stepson is former President His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor making Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto a brother of H.E John Kufuor.
i. Okyeame Baffuor Akoto had thirty-Six (36) children. Dr. Afriyie Akoto was the eighteenth (18th) child
14.Okyeame Baffuor Akoto paved the way for H.E John Kufuor to enter politics by becoming the Progress Party’s candidate for Atwima Nwabiagya Constituency.
D. Sacrifices
15.While many leading members of the Northern People’s Party/UP abandoned the Party and defected to the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Okyeame Baffuor Akoto and his very close confidants like Chief S. D Dombo, Dr. Joseph Boakye Danquah and others stayed firmly together for the UP tradition even under arrest and detention in condemn cells; until Dr. J. B Danquah’s demise in prison in 1965 and Baffuor Akoto and Dombo’s subsequent release from prison after the overthrow of the Kwame Nkrumah regime in February 1966.
16.Baffuor Akoto sacrificed his Butuakwa and Appiah Kyeame stool and his position as Okyeame to Asantehene Otumfuo Sir Osei Agyeman Prempeh II for the sustenance, development and progress of the United Party’s tradition.
17.Baffour Akoto sacrificed his liberty for the UP tradition against the dictatorship of the CPP, and through that, suffered arrest and detention under the Prevention Detention Act (PDA) until the overthrow of the Kwame Nkrumah regime in February 1966.
i. In effect, during his quest to defend the liberty of his fellow citizens, he lost his personal liberty and suffered imprisonment and loss of his ancestral duty as a chief and linguist to the Asantehene.
E. Historical Achievements
18.Baffuor Akoto’s advocacy for federalism is the concept that has become the basis of the current decentralisation in Ghana, also known as Local Government, in which we have Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies, which are coordinated by the Regional Coordinating Councils.
19.The Re: Akoto Case paved the way for human rights to assume an entrenched position in Ghana’s constitution, and in effect, informed some of the provisions in the 1992 Constitutions, and indeed, the Constitutions post 1966
20.Okyeame Baffour Osei Akoto’s position and role in the struggle for Ghana’s independence was very reflective as was pointed out in Daily Graphic publication of 24 September 1956; “the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and its allies are not opposed to Gold Coast independence, and that, all what the NLM is asking for is an agreed constitution for a self-governing Gold Coast”.
