Few buildings anywhere are named after a work order. In Accra, Job 600 is.
The tall block beside Parliament House was built in the mid-1960s under Kwame Nkrumah to accommodate the heads of state who came to Accra for the summit of the Organisation of African Unity in October 1965. It was known by the job number it carried in government records, and the name outlived any grander title.
Nkrumah’s summit
Nkrumah was the loudest champion of African unity on the continent. He wanted a union government for Africa, and hosting the OAU summit in Accra was a chance to press his case.
The OAU had been founded in Addis Ababa in May 1963 by 32 independent African states. Nkrumah arrived at that founding meeting with copies of his new book, Africa Must Unite, and argued for a continental government at once. Most leaders preferred a looser association of sovereign states, and the charter they signed reflected that. Accra in 1965 was his second attempt. His government built a conference complex, State House, and the accommodation block for delegates, with suites for heads of state.
Critics at home and abroad called the spending extravagant at a time when Ghana’s economy was under strain, with falling cocoa prices and rising debt.
The boycott
The summit did not go as Nkrumah hoped. Several French-speaking governments stayed away, accusing Ghana of sheltering and supporting opponents who wanted to overthrow them. The union government plan made little progress. Four months later, in February 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup while he was abroad.
Parliament’s offices
After the summit, the buildings were put to other uses. State House became the home of Ghana’s Parliament, and Job 600 became offices for MPs and parliamentary staff. The building has had periods of neglect and renovation.
What the name tells
Job 600 is a reminder of how much Nkrumah’s government built in under a decade: the Akosombo Dam, Tema and its harbour, the motorway and the conference buildings. Some were monuments to vision; some became symbols of debt.
The OAU itself was replaced by the African Union in 2002, and the AU’s headquarters is in Addis Ababa. Nkrumah’s dream of a single African government remains unfulfilled.
Yet the building still stands, and MPs still walk to their offices under a name that began as a line in a works ledger. Few Ghanaians know the number’s origin. Everyone knows where Job 600 is.
