Ghana: We Salute Samia Nkrumah

Samia Nkrumah, daughter of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, founder of the Convention People's Party and the modern Ghana state. Samia was recently elected as head of the Convention Peoples Party which fought for the independence of Ghana politically and economically., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Ghana: We Salute Samia Nkrumah

14 September 2011
editorial

Due to some of our customs and cultural practices, women are usually relegated to the background when it comes to decision making. Women are usually told they were created by God to be in the kitchen and cook for their husbands. These negative cultural practices and beliefs have affected women so much so, that some of them do not even want to get into professions dominated by men.

Women who try to venture into politics are described in derogatory terms, which scare their women colleagues away. Despite these frustrations, Samia Yaaba Nkrumah, daughter of the late Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first President, seems to have brazed the odds and is rubbing shoulders with her male counterparts.

Madam Yaaba Nkrumah has not lived in Ghana for long, and cannot speak any Ghanaian language, yet within a short period of time, she has been able to organise herself and embarked upon a vigorous campaign to win the Jomoro seat on the ticket of her father's party, the Convention People's Party (CPP).

Nobody gave her a dog's chance, because the man she contested the seat with, Mr. Lee Ocran, Ghana's High Commissioner to South Africa, was one of the big shots in the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

After setting such an enviable record, Samia decided to move up the political ladder to contest for the national Chairmanship of the CPP. Again, many people ruled her out of the race, because of the caliber of men she was going to compete with.

She again proved all her critics wrong, by beating Dr. Edmond Delle, a former chairman of the party, and Nadi Nylander, the incumbent, to become the new National Chairperson of the CPP.

Though the Constitution has been in force since 1992, no woman has ever aspired to that position, let alone, contest the chairmanship race of the two dominant political parties - NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP). It is, therefore, the hope of The Chronicle that the feat chalked by Samia would spur other women in the country to also aspire to high positions in their respective political parties.

Until the mid 2000, women did not occupy positions like Chief Justice (CJ), Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and Speaker of Parliament among a host of others, but today, the situation has changed. The Chronicle will, therefore, not be surprised if Ghana produces her first woman President in the shortest possible time.

Ghanaian women, Samia has shown the way, get up and be counted among the men, because you are capable of doing what the men are doing.

The Chronicle congratulates the new National Chairperson of the CPP and all other women who were elected together with her. It is our conviction that they would not disappoint the people, for the trust they have reposed in them.