Let Fathia’s Death Unify Nkrumaists - Aggudey

Presidential candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP) in the 2004 election, Mr George Oposika Aggudey, has said the greatest tribute that Nkrumaists can pay to the memory of the late Madam Fathia Nkrumah is for them to unite to fight and win the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections.

“It is my wish and prayer that the death and interment of Madam Fathia Nkrumah would serve as a rallying call for all Nkrumaists to come together to fight and win the next general election,” he said.

In a message Mr Aggudey's office issued yesterday to mark the interment of Madam Fathia, Mr Aggudey said Madam Fathia Nkrumah undoubtedly accompanied her husband, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, on an exciting and eventful political journey, which was determined by human options and by force of wide-ranging circumstances.

He said even in death, the stature of Madam Fathia Nkrumah continued to glow and glitter, since she provided the physical and emotional support, which, in no small measure, contributed in shaping the complex nature of the man Nkrumah.

“Her gentle whispers and regular admonitions invariably refined Nkrumah's methods, his understanding of the psychology of the contrasting characters he had to work with and his way of harmonising claims and rivalries of his colleagues in the CPP.”

According to Mr Aggudey, he was also comforted by the fact that Madam Fathia Nkrumah stood firmly behind Nkrumah even to the point of death when some leading members of his ousted regime and erstwhile vocal adherents had made a political somersault and testified in public that they were relieved after his overthrow on February 24, 1966.

“The people of Ghana would, therefore, never forget Fathia as the woman who was with Nkrumah when he vigorously implemented his concise and clear-cut ambitious development programmes, which provided the veritable platform for the phenomenal progress of Ghana in the early 1960's,” the CPP flag bearer for election 2004 said.

He said even though Nkrumah — by the nature of his work as President of Ghana, architect of Pan African Unity and exponent of the Non-aligned Movement — was often away from Fathia and the children, her “cool and calm composure made her to develop a deeper insight into the enormity of the job that Nkrumah had placed on his shoulders and for that matter shared his concerns”.

“Fathia's body lies smouldering in her grave, but her soul goes marching on and with this, Nkrumaists in the country and elsewhere should drop their differences and unite to capture political power in the next election to re-arrange the social and economic order of the country to her glory and that of Kwame Nkrumah,” Mr Aggudey said.