#CPPpolls: ‘Victory is mine’

Aspiring presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Samia Yaba Nkrumah, has expressed optimism about her chances of winning the presidential primaries.

The former Member of Parliament for Jomoro in the Western Region said she has served the party to the best of her abilities and was hopeful that delegates would show their support for her to continue with the vision of her father, the first president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, which she says was aimed at developing the nation into an industrial economy.

Speaking at the party’s congress at the Trade Fair Centre at La in Accra, she told Class FM’s Ridwan Karim Dini Osman that: “All the senior comrades understand the mission of the CPP. We exist to complete Kwame Nkrumah’s agenda. We exist to re-launch the seven-year development plan. Senior comrades understand the need for a genuine Nkrumahist party to come to power. So, they are not backing me personally, but the vision we all subscribe to – to free Ghana and make it a strong industrial country.”

Meanwhile, a prominent member of the party, Prof Agyeman Badu-Akosa, has predicted a landslide victory for Ms Nkrumah.

The pathologist and one-time flagbearer-aspirant declared that the legacy and principles of the party’s founder, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, should be maintained, adding that the daughter of Ghana’s first president was the best person to do that.

“My expectation is a resounding victory for Samia Nkrumah. This party owes everything to the vision and ideology of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Samia best represents that vision and that ideology. And I am speaking to members of the CPP to vote resoundingly for Samia. I believe that even if Samia gets 80%, she has lost. As far as I’m concerned, if she gets less than 80% she has lost. Everybody else, give them 5%, give the rest to Samia Yaba Nkrumah,” Prof Akosa told Class FM’s Ridwan Karim Dini Osman.

He said his conviction was “on the basis of the ideology on which this Convention People’s Party (CPP) was founded”.

According to him, the CPP needed to assert its unique ideological heritage from the other parties in Ghana, as over 90 per cent of Ghanaians had not benefitted from the rule of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) in some 24 years of democratic rule under the fourth republic, saying it was time to “bring in someone, who believes in that fundamental ideology on which the CPP was founded”.

He said Ms Nkrumah best represents that ideological platform and “I am urging all CPP members to vote massively for her. I am saying even if she gets 80%, I believe in my mind she has lost, even though all she needs is 50 per cent plus one”.

He also said: “This is not a neoliberal party. This is a party that believes in the ideology and principles of an African personality. We believe in our own people, not other countries’ people. We are not influenced by other countries ideology… The CPP’s ideology delivered Ghana and the rest of Africa. It’s that ideology that will continue to lead the way for Ghana and Africa. And I am saying Samia best represents that ideological standpoint, that platform on which Ghana will develop.

Prof Akosa urged delegates not to be influenced by candidates splashing cash to win their votes. In a dig at flagbearer-aspirant and former party general secretary, the medical practitioner said: “Some people have been general secretary for eight years. Where is the organisation of this party? Where is the platform on which they think they have the audacity to come and contest even for a presidential slot? For the four years Samia Yaba Nkrumah was chairman, every pesewa that went into this party came from her. All her executives were just looking at her. ‘Bring money, bring money, bring money’. Today those people have got the money and they are sharing.”

“Those who are sharing money, they have not spent one pesewa to advance the cause of the party.