Sunday February 27, 2011

Samia Nkrumah, the CPP Member of Parliament for Jomoro, met with CPP party officials and functionaries in at Takoradi on Sunday February 27. The meeting was attended by the CPP Western Regional executive officers and representatives of constituency officers and functionaries from 20 of the 22 constituencies in the region.

The Honourable MP took the opportunity to reiterate her intention to seek the national chairman position of the party. Before she elaborated on why she would seek the chairmanship position, Hon. Samia sought to answer her critics who claimed she lacked the experience for such a position. She showed how the party had performed poorly in national elections since 2000 and quipped, “Is bad performance an experience?” To this someone in the audience retorted “the concept of voting ‘skirt and blouse’ came from the national leadership of the party.” The party leadership wanted her to run for the KEAA constituency in the Central Region. Samia, however, decided to run in Jomoro where she battled it out against a three-term incumbent Hon. Lee Ocran from the NDC and a sitting DCE from the NPP. She won 50% of the votes as compared with 33% for the incumbent and 17% for the DCE. “What is that for lack of experience?” she asked. In Parliament Hon. Samia decided to remain independent of the NDC and NPP rather than compromise her personal principles and that of the CPP. Past alliances with the other parties that were not based on the party’s principles had been disastrous for the credibility of the party, she said. Hon. Samia cited a recent Ghana News Agency (GNA) report that indicated the party had no functioning constituency offices in the Greater Accra Region, a Region not far from the national head office of the party. She then wondered how many functioning constituency offices were in the Western Region besides what she had in Jomoro.

She would be seeking the chairmanship position so that she would be able to revive party organizational structures in all of the 230 constituencies. That will enable the party to re-connect with its grassroots base so that it will win more seats in Parliament. She reminded the audience that a core strategy of the party required that the leadership would “go to the people, talk with the people, listen to the people, and learn from the people.” She said the party must therefore, re-package the Nkrumaist message and initiate creative fund raising strategies in order that it will develop with the people policies and programmes that will provide equal opportunities for all Ghanaians for education, healthcare, decent jobs, shelter and food.

“The CPP grew out of youth associations, women’s groups and farmers and other group organizations, and we need to re-connect with the youth and other groups that are the party’s natural allies,” she said to a thunderous applause from the audience. We also need to work to achieve a united front for all Nkrumaists, she said. But that would require we approach this with open minds, sincerity, and be willing to compromise on the issue of a composite party symbol if that is the small price we would have to pay in order to unite the CPP and the PNC, she added.

At the end of speech, she was given a five-minute standing ovation. In the open session that followed her speech, two people – a women and a man – said Samia’s speech had motivated them to want to run for parliament in 2012.

Honorable Samia quoted from Nkrumah’s speech on June 12, 1949, “the time has arrived when a definite line of action must be taken if we are going to save our country from continued imperialist exploitation and oppression”.

The audience broke into a rousing and electrifying rendition of the party’s battle song: “There is Victory For Us” and shouts of “Forward Ever!”

An old man in the audience shed tears of joy as the event reminded him of the CPP of the good old days, as he put it.