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(John Naret). He could not even trust
a transferman to know the job within the department without
the approval of the commission. This and other problems with
the structural remnants of colonial government
plagued his career as attorney general.
His main objective as attorney general was to straighten out
the legal court systems that were in place during the
colonial governments rule and to expand laws
in accordance with the new constitution.
Fixing a system that had been in place made especially difficult
by the fact that British colonial office never felt the
need to have a legal expert in the colony
to draft laws and organize the legal system.
He was also a consultant to President Nkrumah on legal
matters concerning the forming of new laws
and the matters concerning constitution.
The most controversial law, Nkrumah was
to pass was the Preventative Detention Act.
When Geoffery Bing heard on the radio while on holiday that
President Nkrumah had arrested [unclear audio] who was the
general secretary of the United Party [unclear audio]
who was the [unclear audio] leader of the opposition
in Parliament, he felt that everything he had been
working towards had suddenly collapsed.
He had been opposed to Preventative Detention in the
past especially when he was in British Parliament, opposing
similar legislation in Northern Ireland.
Bing may not have agreed with the idea of
Preventative Detention, but he did see the
possible need for it in Ghana at that time.
In Ghana, there was a major rift in government.
There were the pro-Nkrumah people who supported a republic
that followed the Scandinavian socialist model, and then there
were those of the United Party, the collection of anti-Nkrumah
political organizations who supported the system of
chieftancy put in place in the colonial government.
The Ghanaian legal system at that time was not capable of
dealing with political crimes by [unclear audio] or sedition
because of the shortcomings of the legal system.
The idea that those opposed to the Nkrumah government would
hinder efforts through reforming the system, thus perpetuating
its inefficiency would lead to it never being fixed.
In a compromise, it was decided that the act should be used.
It was not to be used against politicians
in general or members of government.
Bing was still opposed to the act, but it proved to be
useful shortly after the bill was passed when
travel conspiracy was discovered.
In this situation, it was shown that there was need for
preventative detention to ensure the stability
while the still fragile government's
infrastructure was still being built.
When it came out that Nkrumah had arrested members of
Parliament, Bing felt that nothing had gone terribly wrong.
In the ensuing trial concerning the conspiracy, reactions from
the international community were extremely negative.
It would continue to be negative concerning Nkrumah's government.
By 1961, Bing had decided to retire from the position of
attorney general because he was fatigued by the work
he had been doing and needed a change.
He was growing tired of the struggles of building a legal
structure and, as he said, wanted to be rid of law and the
duties of administering the department.
He was relieved of the heavy burden
of duties of the attorney general.
He stayed on to work on developing the education system
and took on a president professorship.
He was to remain in Ghana to carry out certain assignments.
Among his new certain assignments, he worked on civil
reorganization, methods of preventing corruption,
and internatonal diplomacy.
He maintained this non-committal position
until February 24, 1966.
Nkrumah government was overthown.
That morning Mr. Bing and his wife were warned by friends that
if they were caught, they would likely be killed.
So, they were smuggled to an Australian high commission.
When the rebel regime made a formal demand
for his arrest, Bing surrendered.
He was then beaten by soldiers and police that took charge of
him and threw him into prison cells.
After months, he was deported and had lost
everything he had owned in Ghana.
All he had left was the money he had on him at the time of
his capture and was unable to recover most
of his possessions from his home.
This is the story of Geoffery Bing's experience
in Ghana who Nkrumah knew well.
He was the first attorney general of the independent Ghana
and played a key role in its development.
He helped write the constitution of Ghana in an attempt
to build an effective legal system to administer it.
He was also demonized for the foreign press of Britain,
in particular, for being the creator of the consitution
which allowed him to be a dictator through the
creation of the Preventative Detention Act.
He was often cited as a communist, trying to create a
social Soviet Republic and he spread it to the rest of Africa.
It is true that Bing and Nkrumah were socialists
and believe in a non-Africa.
The struggle continues today, and it does not seem
any closer to becoming to fruition.
In their attempt to unify African nations and liberate
from the colonial powers still controlling them, they became
victims of the same power for defying the British
by making Ghana a truly independent nation
in the face of strong opposition.
This was unacceptable for the colonial powers because as Bing
said in the circumstances of power war politics at the time,
it was regarded as communist, not because of the ideology of
the supporters, but because of the attack
of a supposedly fundamental instrument of
European stability, the disunity of Africa.
Today, the new threat is that of new colonialism economic
exploitation of African states by transnational corporations, a
prime example being the diamond trade in West Africa.
This new threat must be reorganized as Kwame said,
"People of the colonies unite.
The working men of all countries are behind you".
Kwame's role in non-aligned movement was to [unclear audio]
to provide world peace.
The presence of the Cold War and his vision of global peace put
aside deals against those who favored
imperialism and colonialization.
The non-aligned movement was called [unclear audio]
imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism,
[unclear audio], and all forms of foreign aggression,
occupation domination, interference of homogeny, as
well as against the great power of black politics.
♪ [music playing--no dialogue] ♪♪.