Samia Nkrumah has cautioned the National Democratic Congress (NDC) against using Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s name for political gains.
Samia, the daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, said political parties who claim to believe in Nkrumah’s ideas must prove it by pursuing his policies.
Her comment comes on the back of a solidarity walk organised by the NDC against what they believe is government’s intention of side-lining Nkrumah as the founder of modern Ghana.
In 2012, the NDC government, led by ex-President John Evans Atta Mills, set aside September 21, the birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, as Founder’s Day.
However, the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has tabled a proposal to shift the commemoration to August 4 to celebrate several other individuals they believe played key roles in the attainment of Ghana’s independence.
But the NDC and some other Ghanaians hold the view that the move is meant to side line Dr Nkrumah and rather promote the establishment of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), forebears of the NPP.
But speaking to Moro Awudu on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM, Samia said: “We must not use Kwame Nkrumah’s name for political gain without implementing his policies, and the way you can tell whether a political party is Nkrumahist is by implementing his policies.”
“I’m concerned with the suppression of Nkrumah’s policies. We cannot [separate] practice from talk. If you believe in Nkrumah’s ideology then you must see it translate into policies,” she added.
In a swift response, National Organiser of the NDC, Kofi Adams, on the same programme on Friday, 22 September 2017 said the NDC has pursued Nkrumah’s agenda over the years.
“What policy is she talking about that has to be pursued that is not being pursued?” Mr Adams quizzed.
He said: “What Dr Nkrumah pursued first was educational agenda and to build human resource that is acceptable so that we can be able to do what we must do. The NDC has focused more in making sure that education in all forms is available as enshrined in our constitution so as to make our industrialisation agenda possible.
“Dr Nkrumah built Akosombo Dam because he knew that power was needed to be able to industrialise. The NDC government has been working so hard on the issue of energy so that what we have suffered will never be the case again, and therefore, a lot of development in energy-related issues has happened. This is an indication that we accept the thinking and we accept what it is that he did and we think that things must be done in a methodical way in order to achieve results, and that’s what Dr Kwame Nkrumah stood for and that is exactly what we are standing for.”
Source: Ghana/ClassFMonline.com/91.3FM
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