Nkrumah’s Son Slams Nana Addo

The idea by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer to move Ghana from merely exporting raw materials to an industrialized nation in 10 years has been rubbished by one of the sons of Ghana’s first president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Gamal Nkrumah, a journalist, based in Egypt, who usually does not miss a chance to comment on issues happening in Africa especially Egypt, but hardly does same for Ghana, recently commented on Nana Akufo-Addo’s interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Mr. Nkrumah made the observation on his face book page wall last Monday, attracting several comments from his face book friends here, in Ghana including his kid-brother, Dr. Seku Nkrumah, who is a member of the NPP campaign team. To him, this idea by Nana Addo is nothing new, because his (Gamel’s) late father, Dr. Nkrumah, had that aspiration, but could not fulfill it because his reign was cut short by people within and outside Ghana, through a coup.

Gamel first posted “Presidential hopeful Nana Akufo-Addo stresses how we in Ghana can get true value for our money… to move away from being simply exporters of raw materials… ironic, that the party that stands diametrically opposed to the Nkrumaist tradition now upholds Kwame Nkrumah’s endeavors to industrialize the country… access to education, access to jobs… sounds like a u-turn in favour of Nkrumaism… the question is will the NPP accept Nkrumah’s socialist strategy for industrialization and development in Ghana? I suspect the answer is no… Forward ever”

But Sekou Nkrumah fired back “Any right thinking Ghanaian knows the contest is between NPP and NDC! So who can do a better job in government? After what we have seen of the NDC in the last three years it is obvious the better choice is NPP.”

When Sekou was questioned why he was not throwing his weight behind the CPP rather than the NPP, he replied “Why on earth should Sekou Nkrumah support a useless CPP party?

The Egypt-based journalist, questioned how Nana Addo was going to realize his industrialization dream for Ghana by making free education and other social interventions when the party on which he is riding on to win the December polls is dramatically opposite to what he is proposing.

Gamel’s comments suggested that Nana Addo is departing from the NPP’s capitalists/property owning political ideology to the Nkrumaist tradition of a socialist political ideology.

The Director for Kwame Nkrumah Pan-African Cultural Centre wondered how the NPP folks are going to accept Kwame Nkrumah’s social strategy of industrializing Ghana, to which Gamal said “it’s a no, no”.

Unlike his kid brother Dr. Sekou Nkrumah who has been described on various political platforms as ‘a political prostitute’, Gamel seems to be in love with the ideology of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) founded by his father.

He is on the same platform with his younger sister Samia Nkrumah, who after contesting the Jomoro parliamentary seat and going to Parliament in 2009 rose to lead the CPP as its chairperson.

Gamel in all his comments has never failed to mention the slogan of the CPP which is Forward Ever! Backwards Never! Given every indication that he still is proud of his father’s party and ideology, unlike Sekou who have sometimes had some unsavory criticism for his dead father.

While Gamel supported his sister in both her quest to lead the people of Jomoro in the Western Region and the CPP, Sekou was quoted in the media as being very much against his sister’s candidature as he believed she could not make any impact, but just riding on the successes of their late father.

Sekou, sometime last year, fell out with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and pitched camp with the NPP’s flag bearer as he contends the NDC led by President Mills have no clue about the problems of Ghanaians.

This was after he had served in the Mills administration as head of the Youth Council, but could not make any impact on the youth. Prior to that he was once also in-charge of the Dubois Library in Accra but rundown the place. He had tried a newspaper and later an Art Gallery but they could not fly.

Sekou has simply become a rolling stone, gathering no moss, as he is unable to sustain himself on any endeavor he embarks on.