The effusion of Gamal Nkrumah
For the past weeks, the pages of the Daily Graphic has been used by Gamal Nkrumah, the son of the late President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in veiled and desperate attempt to explain why his sister, Samia Nkrumah, lost the Jomoro Parliamentary Seat although those articles stated that he was to write on the issues of Pan-Africanism.
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In his endeavour, Gamal Nkrumah used his column to hurl insults at the good people of Jomoro and any decent Ghanaian he thinks contributed to his sister’s loss of the seat during the 2012 Parliamentary elections.
For readers who may not know where Jomoro is, I would like to explain that it is one of the three constituencies in the Nzema area of the Western Region. It was formerly called Nzema West.
It has been the stronghold of the NDC since the advent of the Fourth Republic.
However, in August 2008, Samia Nkrumah appeared on the political scene following the unsuccessful attempts by some CPP elements to impose her on the KEEA and Ellembelle constituencies as a parliamentary candidate.
Although by law she neither hailed from nor was ordinarily resident in Jomoro, the people allowed her to stand all in the name of the father, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
Samia Nkrumah, who neither spoke a local or for that matter any Akan dialects nor was known in the area, conducted the most expensive parliamentary campaign that the constituency or perhaps the whole Ghana has known.
The constituents were told some funds kept outside were to be released for the development of the constituency once Samia was elected.
Factories were to be put up everywhere to employ the youth.
Pleas of caution by the incumbent MP and well-meaning citizens of the area were ignored and on election day, Samia Nkrumah won a good margin.
Then came the hour of delivering on the promises. Samia Nkrumah was nowhere to be found.
Within three months, the voters started crying for the return of the former MP who had done so much for them but that was not possible.
They had to wait for the next election. So, in the 2012 elections, the constituents decided to pay Samia Nkrumah back. It was as simple as that and she lost the seat.
Gamal Nkrumah from faraway Egypt should mind his words otherwise he may accidently draw innocent and well-respected personalities’ names into the rough area of Ghanaian politics.
Samia Nkrumah’s loss of the Jomoro seat was a result of her poor and disastrous performance as an MP and not the work of so-called comprador capitalists or anti-Nkrumahist tradition as Gamal claimed.
Gamal should also understand that there is no tradition of entitlement in Ghanaian politics.
No matter what position one’s parents occupied in political arena, any attempt by any individual to climb the political ladder will depend on one’s own efforts, riding on one’s parents’ name can only bring temporary success.
When it comes to protecting the interest of the people of Jomoro, the Western Region, and Ghana with regard to the oil find, I wish to assure Gamal Nkrumah that there are enough public-spirited and patriotic Ghanaians who are already involved in this endeavour.
To Gamal Nkrumah in Cairo, ! would like to say this: Power has gone back to its proper place in Jomoro.
By Kofi Andoh / Daily Graphic / Ghana
