I’m not riding on my father's back in my political career - Samia Nkrumah

Failed Convention People’s Party presidential aspirant, Samia Nkrumah, has rubbished assertions that she’s riding on the back of her father in the pursuance of her political career.

According to her, she is a true Nkrumaist who worked hard to win the Jomoro constituency seat on merit to represent the party in Parliament between 2008 and 2012.

Her critics, including her brother Sekou Nkrumah, have argued Samia won the Jomoro seat, where her father hailed from, and the chairperson of the CPP by the virtue that she is the daughter of Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

But Samia said told Bridget Otoo on TV3’s New Day show Wednesday morning that she “won on merit but not simply because I’m a biological child of Kwame Nkrumah.

“Of course that’s what your detractors would say but everybody knows it’s not so easy to win a seat, especially when it was the stronghold of the NDC. We did a lot of work,” she said when she took her turn on the Uncovered segment of the morning magazine show.

Samia who lost the CPP presidential primary to Ivor Greenstreet said she is Nkrumaist by convition, noting that she has been reading Dr Nkrumah’s books over the years.

She said: “I’m an Nkrumaist by conviction. I’m Nkurmaist because I read Kwame Nkrumah’s book and I think in these writings is the solution for our economic and social problems”.

The former CPP chair who is staging a comeback to Jomoro said she is optimistic the people would give her another chance considering the massive development during her four-year reign as MP for the area.

According to her, her work and record as MP in the constituency surpassed that of other MPs who came before and after her, noting “If I didn’t do a good work in Jomoro I wouldn’t have had the confidence to go back to the people and ask for another mandate.

“My years as an MP, I did demonstrate that I’m a different kind of MP to those who came before and after me. Out of 100 communities 90 communities have benefited from a social intervention project,” she claimed.

“The common fund was carefully distributed and not a pesewa went astray. This is how we managed to do so much,” she said, and added Ghanaians are yearning for leaders who will conduct themselves as she and Dr Nkrumah for Jomoro and Ghana respectively.

She alleged her inability to retain the Jomoro seat in the 2012 elections was because foreigners were registered to vote in the election, saying, “the truth was that thousands and thousands of Ivorians were voting; registered and vote.

“Now how can the number of votes cast increase by 11,000 between 2008 and 2012 whereas between 2004 and 2008 the increase was about 500. Now that is illogical,” she said.

Samia claims she has been touring the constituency and the people have confirmed foreigners were registered to vote in the 2012 elections, and noted she didn’t take the issue to court because she did not want to be embroiled in any legal tussle beside the fact that she wanted unity.

“I looked at the situation and I thought four years, you can always come back for the mandate. It’s not the end of the world” she added.

Asked if she had returned to Jomoro to seek their mandate should she have won the CPP primaries, she responded: “No, I would always have gone back to Jomoro in the sense [that] I have promised the CPP in Jomoro that even if I’m not standing, this is the constituency that has given the party the highest number of votes; presidential and parliamentary.

“In 2008|2012 so this constituency needs special attention. Had I been the CPP flagbearer today, I would have dedicated most of my time to the constituency,” she explained.