Kwame Nkrumah's daughter to contest Jomoro seat

SAMIA YAABA Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has been elected to contest this year’s parliamentary elections on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) at Jomoro in the Western Region.

Her election has unsettled the incumbent National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP), Lee Ocran, causing him to launch a vitriolic attack on both Samia and her late father.

She won the contest by polling 70 votes to beat her challenger, Edna Anglo Kofie, a well-known teacher, who had a humiliating seven votes.

Lee Ocran has asked Samia to return to her Italy base or to Nkroful where her father hailed from.

Speaking to Citi Fm yesterday, Hon Ocran noted: “Her presence means nothing, absolutely nothing and I am an Nkrumaist so I do not want to sound rude otherwise I would have said that in my years in politics, I have done more for Jomoro than her father ever did.

Her father did more for Ghana but very little for our place. In any case, nobody knows her; she does not speak the language, she had never been there and she does not know any place.

“She is Nkrumah’s child, so what? It does not mean anything. She should go back to Italy or if she wants to stay here, she should find something else to do because our people are very discerning. If her father was Nkrumah, she should go to Nkroful.

People do not just vote because her father was somebody; what has she done for the people all these years? Where had she been?”

“She had never been to the place; she has just walked in and thinks that people would vote for her.

She should go and start campaigning and 7th December would come and elections would take place and she would see where she belongs,” he added.

Meanwhile, Samia has maintained that her tour of the constituency and her interaction with the people revealed that the constituents were still lacking many things and were not living in the best of conditions.

She said whether or not she would win the parliamentary elections should be left for the electorate to judge.

Samia further debunked claims that she was not a Ghanaian, saying she had always been a Ghanaian and that she had renounced her Italian citizenship.

After her landslide victory last Saturday, Samia was paraded through the streets of the constituency as her supporters went on a free-for-all carnival, and on Sunday, arranged for her to visit a number of churches in and around the constituency.

In an interview with DAILY GUIDE, Samia said she was elated at the victory, because prior to the election her critics had argued that she was not fit to contest as she does not speak any local dialect.

“Meanwhile, the lady I was contesting is well-known and had stayed there for long so I was a little jittery when she started to speak Nzema to the delegates; all I said in Nzema was ‘good morning’ (Ahioo!) before my speech and ‘thank you’ (Medawase!) after I had ended.

But the people voted for me because they bought my message and have faith in me that I can do the job,” Samia narrated.

Samia indicated that the campaign was tough but it gave her an opportunity to know the people, understand their needs and also for the people to know her.

“There is a lot of goodwill there for me and I hope it would translate into votes on December 7. I get many people telling me they would vote for me; I mean people from other political parties.

They have a lot of belief in me and I do not think I won simply because I am Nkrumah’s daughter. It was not that simple,” Samia added.

She said her priority would be education, job creation and empowering youth and women.

“Everything is a priority for me, but certainly, I am concerned about the women and the youth; I would be working with student groups, women groups, opinion leaders, community heads and the very people who I want to represent in the constituency,” she told DAILY GUIDE.

Samia, the second child of Fathia and Kwame Nkrumah, has relocated to Ghana from her Italy base where she made a living out of lecturing, consultancy and journalism.

DAILY GUIDE was the first to break the exclusive story in January this year that Samia would be contesting parliamentary elections in Ghana this December on the ticket of the CPP.

Samia and her brothers, Gamel and Sekou, were children residing with their mother, Fathia, at the Flagstaff House in Accra when the military overthrew their father in a coup on February 24, 1966.

With the assistance of the Egyptian Government, Fathia, on the same day, left with her children to resettle in Egypt where she (Fathia) hailed from.

Samia attended Achimota Secondary School briefly but has since stayed, schooled and worked in various parts of the world.

The first President’s children have visited Ghana on countless occasions and the youngest son, Sekou, who resides in Accra, caused a stir in political circles last year when he announced his decision to join the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Gamel, a journalist, still resides in Egypt.

Their mother passed away last year and was buried beside her husband at the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum in Accra.