I left CPP because of Samia - Nylander

Samia Nkrumah was one of the major reasons for which Mr. Ladi Nylander, former Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), defected to Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s Progressive People’s Party (PPP).

Asked by Prince Minkah on the Executive Breakfast Show on Class91.3FM on Friday June 17 about why he left the CPP, Mr Nylander said apart from the party’s fixation with ideology not sitting well with him and the several other members who joined the PPP, “Samia’s entry into Ghanaians politics changed, somewhat, the environment of CPP, so, yes, that was part of the reason”.

Prior to the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, Ms Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first president and founder of the CPP, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, got engrossed in some disagreement with Dr Nduom, the party’s 2008 presidential candidate, and other prominent members of the party, a situation that birthed the PPP as a splinter party.

Despite being a young party, the PPP went ahead to contest the 2012 general elections and outperformed the CPP.

Explaining why he had issues with the party’s fixation with ideology, Mr. Nylander said: “I think politics is through association, through people you feel you have like minds with. Every party evolves and we felt that the CPP was evolving into something that we could not be part of. I think that we in the PPP are pragmatists.

In my personal estimation, the CPP was getting a bit too ideological. There are things that need to be done: corruption needs to be tackled, jobs must be created…so, I felt that that ideology can actually get in the way.”

“… We [those who left CPP for PPP] felt that we didn’t want to be constrained by ideology because (yes ideology is part of your belief) but at the same time there are situations that are practically on the ground that you need to deal with.

Corruption to us is the single most dangerous element in Ghana’s politics; that one, you don’t need ideology [to fight], it’s there.

To us, corruption is corruption and you got to deal with it and you got to be pragmatic and we wanted to deal with it pragmatically, we wanted to deal with the job creation pragmatically, we wanted to deal with self-governance pragmatically, so, yes, ideology is fine, but when you want to do something and you are looking ahead, sometimes ideology can be superfluous,” he explained.