Director of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, burst into a hearty guffaw when he heard Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, who was sidelined by the Mills administration, pontificate that he (Sekou) would not have honoured an invitation from an “incompetent and a corrupt government”, had President Mills offered to take him along on the trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dr. Nkrumah’s comments follow his exclusion from a trip to the AU Summit in Ethiopia, where his late father, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is to be honored and a statute of him, unveiled at the forecourt of the newly constructed AU building.
Known for his bluntness, Sekou Nkrumah, who recently declared his support for the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party Nana Akufo-Addo, was left behind as the President headed to Addis Ababa for the Heads of State and Governments of the AU meeting with his two siblings.
His siblings, Dr. Francis Nkrumah and Samia Nkrumah, were invited to join the president on the trip.
But this decision, it appears, has not gone down well with the third son of Nkrumah.
The situation seems to have widened the rift between the presidency and the former Acting National Coordinator of the National Youth Authority who has for some time now become a vociferous critic of President Mills and his leadership style.
Lamenting about the decision to sideline him in an interview on OmanFM, Sekou said it was unfortunate that a party he campaigned for during the last general elections would deny him the opportunity of participating in an AU ceremony in honour of his late father.
To him, this clearly indicates that “the Father for all” tag on President Mills is a sham.
“If you as a president, even during your campaign, one of your campaign messages to Ghanaians is that you’d be the father of all and then all of a sudden when it is something to do with Nkrumah, you decide to sideline some of his children, then of course it rather exposes how hypocritical our President is…He is not after all the father of all but the father of some,” he said.
However, Director of Communications at the Presidency, believes otherwise and insists President Mills did nothing wrong by not inviting Sekou Nkrumah.
Snubbing assertions by the former acting National Coordinator of the NYC that President Mills is discriminatory and not “a father of all” as he claims, Koku Anyidoho, who was offering reasons why government chose Professor Francis Nkrumah and Hon. Samia Nkrumah over Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, in an interview with Fiifi Boafo on OmanFM’s “National Agenda” show, explained that in the first place when President Mills was handed the invitation, he was not obliged to embark on the trip with any of Nkrumah’s children, adding that he (Mills) choose them because of ‘locus’.
“President Mills or for that matter the government has decided on Dr. Francis Nkrumah, he is the first son of President Nkrumah. Samia Nkrumah managed to work herself up the ladder, she is the chairperson of her father’s party today as we speak, the only Member of Parliament for her father’s party in Ghana’s Parliament and so between Dr. Francis Nkrumah and Samia, they have locus and deserve to be here and the president appreciated the fact that they have honoured the invitation….he couldn’t invite the whole of Nzema,” he said.
When the host brought his attention to the remark passed Dr. Sekou Nkrumah that if he had been invited by “this incompetent and corrupt government” led by President Mills to embark on the trip, he would have even rejected the offer, Koku Anyidoho, in a public display of mockery then responded: “Oh! Then why is he crying? (hahahaha)… please ask him why he is crying (hahaha). I can’t understand this and can’t explain this. You say you don’t want to see the person’s (Mills) face again because you claim he is ugly and is not appealing...I have accepted all what you have said and I am even wearing my “Joromi” and “Akub3kub3” and you are still going on about it making public commentary? I know I am ugly and I’ve accepted it, I look like Satan and I say fair deal…You even say that I am a cripple…Excuse me to say, you even told me I have crooked ass yet you are still making noise? I want to know from you (Fiifi Boafo) personally, who do you think has a problem?…Me or Sekou?” he asked.
