CPP Woes Due to Samia's Presidential Ambition For 2016 - Says Sekou Nkrumah

Samia Nkrumah

Dr Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first president, has blamed the CPP's indecision on whether to field a presidential candidate for the 2012 elections on the party Chairperson, Samia Yaba Nkrumah, who he alleges is nursing a presidential ambition for 2016.

“People are greedy and they are looking beyond 2012,” he told the Daily Graphic in an interview.

Sekou Nkrumah recently resigned from the National Democratic Congress, with the explanation that he did not want to thwart the efforts of her sister as chairperson of the CPP by remaining in the NDC fold, although he was not joining the CPP.

In his view, the policy direction of the current executive, headed by his sister , was not clear on whether the party would concentrate only on the parliamentary election or would contest both the presidential and parliamentary elections.

He said those who believed that the party should concentrate on the parliamentary seats were doing so to prop up Samia as the party’s presidential candidate for 2012.

He revealed that some elders in the party were working assiduously to make his sister, Samia, the face of CPP in the party’s bid to emerge as a third force in the country’s politics.

This, he contended, was wrong, adding that “it will cause doom for the party.” He advised the rank and file of the CPP to focus on substance, policy and programmes as well as re-organisation.

He said that what the party needed most was a focused direction which was not based on personality cult.

It will be recalled that some constituency executives in a number of regions across the country have called for an early congress in fulfillment of the reasons why the party craved and went for an early congress to elect new executives and consequently elect their party’s flag bearer and parliamentary candidates early enough for the 2012 elections.

Article 78, Subsection 3, of the reviewed constitution of the CPP also states that “the flag bearer of the party must be elected 24 months before the national presidential and parliamentary elections.”

According to Sekou Nkrumah, the CPP is at the cross-roads as to whether to hold an early presidential primary to elect a flag bearer ahead of the 2012 general elections.

However, speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Tuesday, Sekou said the personal ambition of had made the situation murkier since she was unable to take a neutral stance on the issue.

He noted that the late presidential primary being championed by the CPP leadership was intended to frustrate candidates vying for the 2012 flag bearer slot to pave the way for Samia in 2016.

“Those who want to build the party around Samia for 2016 care less about whether they have a candidate or not. They would rather prefer that the candidate (they elect to lead the party for 2012) performs poorly,” he observed.

Dr Nkrumah was convinced his sister’s plan was likely to fail because according to him, when Samia was brought to Ghana and given a safe seat in the party, people like Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom had sacrificed to make sure a CPP existed.

Sekou Nkrumah bemoaned the situation where a party like the CPP which was struggling to gain political popularity was rather seeking to build the party around a personality - something another party is paying dearly for.

He urged the CPP to initiate new programmes that would inspire the people, especially the younger generation, to join the party rather than building the party around a personality.

Sekou Nkrumah, who expressed pessimism about the performance of his sister as the chairman of the CPP, said given the misfortunes of the party now “it would not be difficult to predict doom for the party.”