The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has urged Ghanaians to honour Dr Kwame Nkrumah by protecting the country’s rivers and forests, as well as by pursuing his ideals of unity and self-reliance.
Speaking at the 2026 NkrumahFest at Nkroful on Saturday, Mr Buah asked the public to support the government’s fight against illegal mining and environmental degradation.
Looking after natural resources for future generations, he said, is part of honouring the Osagyefo, and the current generation should do it with the same determination that drove the independence struggle.
The celebration marks Nkrumah’s 117th birthday under the theme “Nkrumah @117: Celebrating His Enduring Legacy – Africa Must Unite or Perish”.
Mr Buah said it should be more than a ceremony and its purpose is to remember Nkrumah with pride, to ask whether Ghana and Africa are becoming what he envisioned, to renew commitment to self-determination and Pan-Africanism, and to inspire a new generation.
He said Nkrumah’s legacy is measured by the institutions and projects that still serve Ghanaians, and not by monuments or photographs.
He named the Akosombo Dam, Tema Harbour, the Adomi Bridge, the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Bank of Ghana and the State Housing Corporation.
What set those projects apart, he said, is that they were “never conceived for the next election” but for future generations.
On Pan-Africanism, Mr Buah asked whether Africa has made enough progress towards the political and economic integration Nkrumah wanted.
He recalled Nkrumah’s belief that Ghana’s independence was incomplete without the liberation of the continent, and his line that “we face neither east nor west, we face forward”.
He pointed to the difficulties people still face with movement and border arrangements between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire as proof that Africans meet practical obstacles to integration decades after independence. Pan-Africanism, he said, needs practical steps that make cooperation and movement easier, and not only declarations.
He challenged young Ghanaians to treat Nkrumah’s legacy as a responsibility and not just a chapter in history.
He said the task is to revive innovation, courage, self-reliance and commitment to causes larger than oneself, and to build societies where citizens prosper without being left behind and where Africa produces and builds instead of depending on others.
Mr Buah also thanked President John Dramani Mahama and the government for supporting the Nkrumah commemorations and for making Nkrumah’s birthday Founders’ Day.
NkrumahFest is held every year at Nkroful, Nkrumah’s birthplace. The 2026 programme runs for a week, with cultural, educational and community activities leading up to the main celebrations.
