NDC Squeezes Sekou

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday September 23, 2011.
Sekou Nkrumah, son of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah who recently resigned from the ruling NDC has branded his former party ‘vindictive’ after storming out of the Founder’s Day celebration in memory of his father.

“I am not upset…I have been in this country for a long time and I have been treated even worse long ago under the previous PNDC and sort but I am saying that we need to move above vindictive and petty politics currently on display.”

Dr. Sekou, who is no news to controversy, caused a stir last Wednesday when he walked out of the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum where a special wreath-laying ceremony was being laid in memory of Ghana’s first President as part of the Founder’s Day.
In attendance were Vice President John Dramani Mahama, former Presidents JA Kuf
uor, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Horst Kohler of Germany, top politicians, parliamentarians and members of the diplomatic corps.

Explaining circumstances leading to his abrupt departure from his father’s tomb, Dr. Sekou said “on evening Monday Baba Jamal, a deputy Minister of Information called me to find out where he can send the invitation to the three of us that is Francis, Samia and myself.”

He said after a couple of telephone calls, he received his invitation for the programme on Tuesday evening and he went to the mausoleum with his wife on Wednesday.

“When we got there we asked where is the family to be seated and they seem to be a lot of confusion over where the family should be seated and then somebody took us to the podium where the dignitaries were.”

Dr. Sekou said whilst on the podium, a lady came up to him and said they were not supposed to sit there and therefore had to look for a different place to make himself comfortable.

“So they took us to another place then as we sat down they gave us the programme and when I looked at it I realized my brother and my sister were to lay a wreath on behalf of the family.”

He added “my sister was to give a speech and then when I looked at the podium I realized she was already seated there and I thought that was not proper because the family needed to sit together.”

He said the choice of who should give a speech in the family should not be the decision of the government adding “even the seating arrangement…yes you have the right to put people where they think they should be placed but you do not divide the family because we were all invited to that function…We are all Nkrumah’s children not because somebody is NDC, somebody is NPP, somebody criticizes Prof. Mills or somebody does not praise Prof. Mills”.

He said when President Mills declared September 21 as the founder’s day he praised him for fulfilling a campaign promise but added “I am saying we do not have to then go beyond that and turn round when we feel people do not belong to our party.”

“If people are not supporting a person and are supporting somebody else then we go back to the vindictive and petty politics of the past. It is something that we should all have left behind.”

According to Dr. Sekou, “the politics of today is not attractive to a lot of people because people are still being vindictive …people are still being very petty …people are just seeking their self interest and not collective interests.”

He said he suspects the day was to celebrate the contribution of Kwame Nkrumah and not “smite” his children saying “because you think you have a difference of opinion with them or you do not belong to the same party or they have criticized you in the past and so on…these things can be put aside…we can address these issues on a different platform but not a day when we are celebrating Nkrumah and then you seem to want to slight some of his kids.”

“As I mentioned there were dignitaries there…there were people there who were also observing…and it does not speak well…they will not take us as people seriously.”

He said he could not have raised any concern at the ceremony because it could seem “I had walked in there thinking that I am Nkrumah’s son and so I deserve to be put in a certain level.”

“You remember when I resign from the NDC and gave my reasons…later I heard their General-Secretary saying that -‘when you come to the NDC you work with them and that the NDC do not have special place for people who think they are big men or children of big men’- but Sekou Nkrumah has never behaved in any way to call that attention to himself.”

“I left before the programme ended because I was being slighted and unfairly treated. I thought I was invited because I was one of Nkrumah’s children. I do not think where I was seated was proper.”

Dr. Sekou has time and time again called on the electorate to change President Mills in 2012 because he (President Mills) lacks vision.

“A lot of people see Mills as an academic and a gentleman. But, in the political arena, you need to be strong-minded, and it looks like this leadership quality is missing in Mills. So I guess we need a more strong-willed, dynamic personality, a charismatic person to inspire national confidence, and also to let the population see the national agenda and feel part of it.”