Sekou Exit Rocks NDC

Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has ended his chequered association with the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Sekou made the announcement yesterday on Joy FM when the station asked him to confirm the snippet of information it had picked on the development.

He responded in the affirmative, stating that he was using the platform of the radio station to announce his movement out of the NDC.

“Yes I have resigned from the NDC. It is one move,” he said, adding that he had not made up his mind as to where he was going next.

His unexpected announcement was preceded by his appearance at the Trade Fair Site CPP delegates’ congress where he ironically asked members of his father’s founded party to join the NDC.

He had also asked the NDC to look for a replacement for President Mills for the 2012 polls even as he disclosed that “I am not taking away anything from the Prof”.

Although he said his move was informed by the election of his sister Samia as chairman and leader of the CPP, he had not joined the party, explaining further that he did not see clearly his future in the NDC.

In a brief but significant interview following his resignation from the NDC, he did state that with his sister Samia taking the mantle of leadership of his father’s “own party”, he did not want to be seen as the obstacle to the revival of the CPP.

His newfound confidence in his sister as leader of the CPP is in opposition to his earlier doubts about her ability to lead it.

The new role of his sister, he stated, demanded that he support her, a decision which during his appearance at the party’s congress did not appear to dawn on him.

“I think in all fairness, in the wake of the recent developments in the CPP with the election of Samia, my sister as leader and chairman of the CPP, if I continue being in the NDC, it would appear that I am an obstacle to the revival of the CPP,” he said.

The ruling NDC, he said, had taken over CPP’s constituency in the country and so remaining in that party even as his sister was leading the CPP was unusual. “Over the years, it is the NDC that has taken over the CPP constituency so in that sense I think the biggest obstacle to any CPP revival is actually the NDC and, therefore, if I continue being in the NDC, it would appear that I am working against her ambitions and I don’t want the impression that I’m the obstacle to the revival of the party that many have described as ‘my father’s party.”

Sekou found it absurd that he would continue being in the NDC at a time his sister was engaged in reviving the CPP.

“At this particular moment, the picture is not looking right for Sekou to be in the NDC and Samia to be trying to revive the CPP – I think one of us has to give way.”

Sekou’s relationship with the Mills segment of the NDC was fractured when, like others sharing in his position of an alternative leader for the NDC, he lost the favour of the president.

His position as Coordinator of the National Youth Council was taken away from him when he called for change of leadership in the NDC, saying that President Mills lacked the charisma and qualities to direct the affairs of the country.

The closest he came to the real reason for quitting the NDC was when he said some of them agreed with the replacement of the president as candidate for 2012 but the delegates spoke loud and clear, continuing with the status quo.

Those who opposed the retention of the president, he said, became marginalized. For now, he said, he had taken a back seat and was just observing.

In one of his many interviews on a radio station in Accra when his souring relationship with the president peaked, he recalled how when, on one occasion, the president could not see him properly when he called on him at the Castle.

“At the moment, I don’t really play a very significant role in the NDC and the reason is that some of us had championed a change in the leadership but as we all saw, the NDC delegates spoke very loudly and clearly and their decision was that they want to continue with the present leadership of the NDC and which has also made some of us to take a back seat and become almost insignificant and not very clear about the way forward,” he said.