Samia Weeps For Sekou

Posted: Daily Guide |Saturday, 24 July 2010

The only daughter of Ghana’s first President, Samia Yaaba Nkrumah has expressed worry about the strained relations between her brother, Sekou Nkrumah and President John Evans Atta Mills.

Breaking her silence on Sekou’s dismissal, Samia, who is also the Convention People’s Party (CPP) Member of Parliament for Jomoro in the Western Region, thought it was an unpleasant experience for her brother to be thrown out of his job.

Much as she respected Sekou’s personal views and the fact that they belonged to two different political parties, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the CPP, Samia stressed the hope that her brother would find a way to make amends with the President.

Sekou was recently sacked as Coordinator of the National Youth Council after he made critical comments about President Mills and his leadership style in an interview he granted to AfricaWatch magazine.

Though government and the Council Board, chaired by Esther Cobbah, said his dismissal had nothing to do with his comments about the President and attributed it to unsatisfactory performance, Sekou thought he was victimized.

“Sekou is an adult and he has his views…his personal views and his independent views and I cannot impose my thinking on him,” Samia told Joy FM.

That notwithstanding, she felt it was her responsibility to protect Sekou as a junior brother.

She said Sekou, who dissuaded her from contesting the Jomoro seat on CPP ticket, made a choice to join the NDC which should be respected. The legislator noted: “He makes a choice with his political views or his statements.”

Asked whether she felt disappointed by Sekou’s criticism of the President, Samia had this to say: “I cannot judge him…err Sekou opposed my standing on CPP ticket and I did not, lets say retaliate. I think people are free to hold their own views.”

Just as she could not judge her brother’s comments, Samia stated she could also not judge the decision of the President to relieve him of his appointment, saying, “I always believe there is solution to every problem. That every mistake, every error can be rectified.”

She expressed the hope that Sekou and President Mills would find an amicable solution to the rift between them.

Sekou’s dismissal as Coordinator of the National Youth Council, only days after he criticised the leadership style of President Mills, took effect on Thursday July 22, according to the deputy Sports Minister, Nii Nortey Duah, who signed the dismissal letter.

Dr Sekou Nkrumah, Kwame Nkrumah’s third son and a member of the National Democratic Congress, predicted his own dismissal.

In his frank interview in the July edition of the AfricaWatch magazine, Sekou said the President was out of touch with happenings on the ground and things were not on course; but that those who knew this were afraid to speak, out for fear of losing their jobs.

"It looks like we now have a situation where people are appointed to positions, whether big or small, and they don't serve the nation but rather the party or the people who put them there. They are gagged because they are afraid to speak their minds or say things as they really are, lest they are removed from those positions," he pointed out.

Sekou said President Mills lacked the charisma, dynamism and strong will to lead Ghana.

In the brutally frank interview, he said the National Democratic Congress government has so far failed Ghanaians.

“A lot of people see Mills as an academic and a gentleman. But, in the political arena, you need to be strong-minded, and it looks like this leadership quality is missing in Mills.

“So I guess we need a more strong-willed, dynamic personality, a charismatic person to inspire national confidence, and also to let the population see the national agenda and feel part of it.”

Sekou said more about the President of Ghana: “There is the impression that he is not able to make decisions. But again if you do not go through the democratic process, you are not strong enough to handle such a situation because those small battles that take you to the top shape you, they make you strong, and give you the courage to face the challenges that come your way in office.”

He blamed the founder of the NDC, former President Jerry John Rawlings, for imposing Mills on his party.

“I think, to a large extent, [Rawlings] is to blame for the situation because really, he put Mills in the leadership position of the NDC, and it was not done through a proper internal democratic process.”

Dr Nkrumah continued, “In leadership, you need to struggle to emerge, anything in life you need to struggle for it. So in a sense Mills did not struggle for the leadership, and you can see that right from 2004 when Kwesi Botchwey stood against him, the latter flopped miserably; and in 2006 Spio Garbrah also flopped miserably against Mills.”

He added, “So nobody could stand against Mills because he was Rawlings’ man. Rawlings created that situation. If he had allowed somebody to succeed him democratically in the NDC, it would have been different. I mean Mills as vice president was fine but to lead, the person must, on his own, struggle to emerge as a leader, sometimes based on what he or she has done; but Rawlings did not give this process a chance at all.”

In the interview, Dr Nkrumah supported calls that a new candidate within the NDC must challenge Mills in 2012.