The second official Jubilee lecture took place at the Accra International Conference Centre on Thursday, as celebrated political scientist Yaw Saffu spoke on the subject of "The struggle for independence, 1947-57."

Addressing a conference hall noticeably less packed than when former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took the floor for the inaugural lecture last month, Dr Saffu took his audience through the tumultuous decade before independence was granted.

As the foundation head of the International Affairs Unit, now the Legon Centre for International Affairs, at the University of Ghana in 1976, Dr Saffu who is a world renowned expert in Ghana's history and politics. Since 1999, he has been working as an international consultant on demographic governance.

Splitting his lecture, and history, into two distinct phases, Dr Saffu"s coverage of the 1951-75 period was particularly interesting. Recognising the heated debate which continues to surround those final days before Independence, and the varying political and historical interpretations of the CPP-opposition split, Dr Saffu plunged headlong into the issue anyway: "At 50, we must be mature enough to benefit from a calm reflection on the past," he said.

The lecture explored in some detail the split between the United Gold Coast Convention and the Convention People’s Party in 1949, and the way in which Kwame Nkrumah was able to use youth organisations in particular to build up and continue developing his support base. Although sometimes accused of hooliganism and intimidation, Dr Saffu showed the genuine popularity of the early CPP - the 'radical’ party feared by British colonialists, who rather tried to encourage and support the apparently more moderate UGCC.

The involvement and manipulation of British authorities in the formation of the Gold Coast’s parties goes further towards explaining the nature of our political development, and the unexpectedly rapid progress towards Independence, than we often remember. As Ghanaians praise our great historical heroes and debate the relative contributions of Nkrumah and his nemeses, in the form of J B Danquah, Kofi Busia et al, we would do well to recall the British officials – Governor Arden-Clarke; Secretary of State for the Colonies, Alan Lennox-Boyd – in determining the shape of these contributions.

In his lecture, Dr Saffu highlighted several key events or circumstances we must thank for our Independence. The ‘turning point’ was of course the riots of February 1948, precipitated by the shooting of ex-serviceman as they marched in protest at the post-war economic depression which saw tens of thousands of former soldiers now out of work. 29 were killed and 237 were injured in the riots that followed; the incident prompted a British Government investigation into the incident; the report destroyed the credibility of imperial authorities, and opened up the way to a hastened self-governance package.

It was the unusual partnership between "a nationalist and a colonialist" – Nkrumah and Arden-Clarke – which eventually brought about this goal, according to Dr Saffu.

Speaking on the disagreements and near fall-out that characterised the final years, Dr Saffu did not shy away from the antagonism of the National Liberation Movement, founded in 1954, nor its provocative means of forcing another general election.

He spoke of the "overwhelming majority" won by the CPP in elections in 1951 and 1954 – considered by the British authorities to be the last before Independence. Formed just a few months after that election date, the party (NLM) resorted to intimidation and violence, according to the renowned academic, to force their way into another national vote. The CPP responded to violence with violence, and the antagonism grew. The NLM’s boycott of discussions on a new constitution in 1956 almost threatened to topple the whole process; and one year before Independence, many wondered if it could actually come about.

Dr Saffu also pointed out the obviously ethnic nature of pre-Independence politics, and the close ties between the NLM and the Asanteman Council. Associated as closely as it was with institutions of chieftancy, the NLM was popular with the British – with chiefs always seen as a bastion of tradition and conservatism, they could be used as a moderating force to curb Nkrumah’s nationalism. Their calls for a federal constitution won them several friends, but with their essentially regional and ethnic focus, the leading opposition party failed to make more ground because it failed – perhaps never effectively sought – the kind of nationwide groundswell of support which Nkrumah managed to nurture.

In the end, of course, the NLM were roundly defeated in 1956. Political wranglings had delayed Independence by a mere matter of months, and a visit by Lennox-Boyd in January 1957 and the subsequent acceptance on both sides of the White Paper saw the date finalised as March 6.

Ghana became, "a single, united country under a unitary constitution," and the rest, of course, is history, albeit a history we will debate over and again, and a history which can only be enriched by contributions such as that by Dr Saffu.