’Nkrumaist family have missed a glorious opportunity’

Page 16. June 5, 2008
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE People’s National Congress (PNC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Sissala West, Mr Haruna Bayirga, says it is unfortunate that members of the Nkrumaist family have missed a glorious opportunity to come together as a formidable force in the country’s political dispensation following the aborted unification of the PNC and the Convention People’s Party (CPP).
He said it was regrettable that during the recent unity talks, individual interest was deemed more important while the collective interest of the Nkrumaist family was relegated to the background.
“There is no doubt that the hearts of most well-meaning Nkrumaists were gladdened when the PNC and the CPP entered into a series of dialogues aimed at forming an alliance as a step towards the eventual merger for the purpose of reviving the dream of great people such as Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Hilla Limann, Kojo Botsio and Moro Egala, who sacrificed for the Nkrumaist tradition”.
In a statement released to the press in Accra, Mr Bayirga, who is also the National Organiser of the PNC, stated that it was not clear as to when the tradition would get another opportunity to unite considering the entrenched positions taken by the leadership of the PNC and CPP after an alliance was almost reached last month.
He stated that there were external forces, whose survival thrived on the perpetual fragmentation of the Nkrumaist front and so such opportunistic forces would not mind doing anything so long as it would keep the unity of the Nkrumaists at bay.
The MP said there were also internal elements within the two Nkrumaist parties, who had been contracted by the external forces to make sure that the unity of the two parties was constantly frustrated.
He said as those hypocritical elements created the impression that they strongly supported the Nkrumaist unification, their actions made them look like “wolves in sheep skin”.
Mr Bayirga added that until such “ostrich characters changed their behaviour, it will be very difficult for the unification of the two parties to come to fruition”.
He, therefore, appealed to people who genuinely believed in the Nkrumaist tradition to remain calm and see the current developments as one of the numerous hurdles that needed to be surmounted as the tradition fought its rightful position in the current political dispensation.
He urged such genuine Nkrumaists across the country to start working together to force the leadership of the two parties to go back to the negotiation table.
Mr Bayirga reminded the leadership of the PNC and the CPP that for the Nkrumaist tradition to be revived, there was the need for them to make a lot of unconditional sacrifices and stop making big issues out of trivial ones such as logos and symbols which he noted, could ruin the fortunes of the two parties.
“It is unfortunate that the leadership of the two parties should at this crucial moment engage in a fierce blame game as to who did what,” adding “until the unification comes to pass, the good people of Ghana are never going to take us serious as political groups seeking political power”.
Mr Bayirga, therefore, called for an end to the blame game and media attacks adopted by certain elements of the two parties since that rather ridiculed the two parties in the eyes of Ghanaians.