The Choice for Mr. Nkrumah
The Governor of the Gold Coast had clearly no alternative but to release Mr. Nkrumah and his colleagues who were in gaol for sedition ; he should, none the less, be congratulated on the speed and grace with which the pardon was extended. Mr. Nkrumah has it in his power to make the working of the constitution a success, but he obviously could not be expected to co-operate from prison. How long and how effectively he will be prepared to co-operate, now that he is a free man again, is another and more doubtful question. He has achieved a not unexpected success at the polls because of his uncompromising nationalism ; the political half-shades of his rivals proved no more popular than did the compromise programmes in India in the days when they were up against the simple all-or-nothing slogans of Congress. Compromise, tact and the ability to shoulder unpopular decisions, are political lessons which cap only be learned by responsibility, and the main interest in the working out of the new Gold Coast constitution will be, not whether it offers the opportunity for responsibility of this sort, for it clearly does so, but whether Mr. Nkrumah and his followers admit that the opportunity is there. He has already talked of moving into opposition if his party finds the constitution " unworkable," and it will obviously be all too easy for him to accept the credit for any popular proposal and saddle the Governor with all blame for those that are unpopular. But he has also stated that his party's aim is to prove, by responsible participation in the government, the colony's capacity for self- government. If the capacity is there, the constitution is quite aciequate to give it play. But does the ability exist ? Elec- tioneering is the easiest and least useful of the democratic arts. It is still too early to judge whether Mr. Nkrumah's talents go beyond it.
Previous page
