[ 2010-07-13 ]

Samia Nkrumah to run for presidency
For the past few months Ms Samia Yaba Christina
Nkrumah, daughter of former president Kwame
Nkrumah, has been omnipresent force in the news.

With captivating presence and honest candour, Ms
Nkrumah’s venture into politics in her homeland,
Ghana, has suddenly brought to the fore the great
achievements of her father’s government and the
need to revisit the original 7 year Development
Plan, which is still relevant today.

She has become the sole defender of the poor and
working folks, those that she often referred to as
“my constituents”. Many of these folks want her to
run for the highest office – the presidency. She’s
awesome and a pure class, like her father,
declared an elderly slum dweller. Everyone wants
her to run”. Another elderly gentleman who said he
was among the last group of young boys to join the
Young Pioneers in 1965 stated, “I would be greatly
honoured as a former Young Pioneer and a Ghanaian
to have her as Ghana’s first female president”.
One commentator said, “She’ll be 56, have a wealth
of experience, her son Kwame should be grown up at
that point. We absolutely love Samia. She’s far
more qualified than those parading as presidential
candidates”. Many supporters want her to continue
in her current role and draw up a battle plan for
2016.

After declaring her intention not to seek the
highest office in 2012, many are wondering whether
Ms Nkrumah would consider running for office in
2016 or continue with her campaign to reduce
poverty among the poor.

As the mother of the entire Nkrumaist group, Ms
Nkrumah is spearheading merger of the Nkrumaist
parties into one political family under the banner
of the Convention Peoples Party, ready for the
2016 elections.

Since her election as Member of Parliament for her
home constituency of Jomorro, Samia has grown in
stature and her popularity now matches that of the
late president and founder of Ghana. Backed by a
motley coalition of Nkrumaists and independents
who are united in their determination to restore
Nkrumah’s presidency in Ghana, Samia Yaba
Christina Nkrumah has become a formidable
political figure in Ghana’s political
dispensation. Not only has she managed to bite
into what seemed the NPP and NDC’s impregnable
support base but she also now got the backing of
majority of the poor and working folks, who form
the majority of the population.

As more Ghanaians shift their political allegiance
to the daughter of the late president, Samia Yaba
Christina has emerged as an important kingmaker,
with the potential of tipping the balance in
favour of either candidate (NDC and NPP) in 2012.
In the second round of the December 2008
elections, supporters of the Nkrumaist parties
deprive the ruling party candidate, Nana Akuffo
Addo, victory by overwhelmingly voting for
candidate Mills en masse to become the President
of Ghana.

Since Samia publicly stated that she will not
contest the 2012 elections, the two main parties
are assiduously courting her support. Analysts,
including this writer, have pointed out that
President Mills’ rehabilitation of the late
President Nkrumah and the constant parading of his
Nkrumaist credentials are such that come 2012, the
great Nkrumaists family would once again throw
their support behind his candidacy.

One Ghana-based political commentator points out,
“The Samia Nkrumah factor has now rendered
uncertain not only the outcome of future
presidential elections but also that of
parliamentary elections”. Samia, a journalist by
profession, return home in 2007 after almost 20
years in Diaspora, to join her father’s party, the
Convention Peoples Party. She has built a powerful
grassroots organisation and with this kind of
strong political base and a powerful personality
to match, Samia has been able to influence
political agenda in Ghana.

Samia’s boldness to challenge and openly criticise
bad policies and corruption among the political
elite, a trait she inherited from the late
president, has won her friends not only in Ghana
but across sub-Saharan Africa.

Majority of Ghanaians believe Samia could be the
right person to deliver the much- wanted reforms
and development to Ghana – plus take the country
into the middle income status and uplift millions
of people out of poverty. Many analysts say Samia
can be the hands-on president Ghana needs to mend
decades of misrule and corruption but not until
2016. It is almost certain that the President,
with endorsement from Samia, would retain the
presidency in 2012. Samia’s popularity is such
that she could make and break president. She has
emerged as the vanguard of democracy in Ghana and
agent of change. Her contribution to
democratisation process in Ghanaian politics is
unquestionable. Her reputation as democratic
leader is beyond doubt.

Within a period of just over two years, Samia Yaba
Christina Nkrumah has built up a seemingly
unassailable support among the poor and working
folks in all the ten regions of Ghana. Ms Nkrumah
has played on her reputation for honesty. Her
reputation is largely inherited from her father,
revered for his probity. One youth leader this
writer interviewed said, “We are convinced that
Samia Yaba will be our President in 2016 because
that would the best for the country”. He further
stated that, “By accepting the responsibility to
continue with her father’s legacy, Samia will
ensure Ghana’s wealth is distributed equitably and
that no one is left behind. She is our only hope
and will transform our country”.

Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah is a progressive who
has spent her entire career in journalism and
politics as a champion for “the voices of poor
Africans”.

Source - Peter Jeffrey Houston, Texas

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