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10.03.2008 Politics

Samia To Settle In Ghana In June

10.03.2008 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

Ms Samia Yaba Nkrumah, daughter of the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has decided to settle permanently in Ghana in June this year to reconnect to and help re-build her father's political party, the Convention People's Party (CPP).

“I am coming back to my country, Ghana, to interact at first hand and hear what people have to say about my fathers heritage as well as the general political situation in the country,” she told the Daily Graphic in Accra.

Samia Nkrumah,a freelance journalist who lives in Rome, Italy, is in the country on a short visit. She left Ghana in the early 1980's and came home last year for the country's 50th anniversary. She also came back in June last year to attend her mother's state funeral.

She said that the two visits inspired her a lot to return to the country for good.

She disclosed that she left the shores of the country on two occasions and in all those instances they were not her choice. The first was the coup that toppled her father and the second, her mother's decision to leave the country.

“Hearing from various people within the country and outside, I have had many more people encouraging me to get back to the CPP and get involved than to stay away” she said.

On the political situation of the country she said 50 years on, political independence must not be regarded as an end in itself but the means to achieve economic freedom and advancement.

She therefore stressed the need for Ghanaians to show collective passion in national development efforts to enable the country attain middle income status within the shortest possible time.

“We can be more courageous by putting passion in the way we conduct our national affairs and handle our development challenges” she stated.

She observed that “we are not passionate enough and seem to resign easily to our faith, a trend she said must be stopped.

Ms Samia said Ghanaians needed not only to cultivate the I can do attitude but remain focused, resolute and united within the framework of the national development agenda.

She said that Ghana needed politics of integrity and expressed appreciation that the CPP was gaining grounds and poised to become a credible alternative.

“There are prospects for the CPP; Whatever happens at the end of this year's elections will be a gain for the CPP and other Nkrumaists outside the party” Samia predicted.

She said the fragmentation of the Nkrumaist family was a natural consequence of the banning of the CPP as a political party and I can assure you that as time goes on “we will be together as one united party”.

She explained that as one Nkrumaist party becomes stronger, the other groups will naturally rally behind it; The only way is one of the groups taking the lead role and everyone would get on board.

She said it was her wish to help build a strong CPP party that related to the people, stressing that the CPP believed in the collective dignity of the African personality.

On the speculation that she was going to be the running mate of Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, she simply said that it had not come to that yet.

She said whatever the party decided to do would be a collective decision and pledged to contribute to rekindle the spirit that gave Ghana the courage to fight for independence.

She described Dr Nduom as a credible and capable person who could lead the country to prosperity and commended the party for embarking on a campaign of ideas and issues devoid of negativity.

Samia is also a programme and students co-ordinator with the University of Arkansas, Rome Centre, and part of an African Association bringing together a number of African immigrants together.

She is married to Michele Melega, an Italian-Danish man, and they have one child, Kwame, who is nine years old.

Samia Nkrumah, born in 1960 in Accra, graduated from London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, where she obtained a Masters on Middle East studies.

Story by Kobby Asmah

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