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Samia Yaba Christina Nkrumah, daughter of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, has shared the challenges her family faced upon their return to Ghana in 1975, three years after her father’s passing.
In an interview on Joy Prime, Samia recounted their exile following her father’s overthrow in February 1966.
According to her, it was during General I.K. Acheampong’s tenure, in 1975, that they received an invitation to return to Ghana.
General Acheampong assured the Nkrumah family of support, prompting them to accept his invitation.
Upon returning, Samia and her siblings encountered widespread criticism against their father, including allegations of misappropriating the country’s resources.
Even in their classrooms, they heard disparaging remarks from teachers about Nkrumah..
“When we returned in 1975 to pursue our education at the invitation of the Acheampong regime, they said they would honour our father, take care of us, and give our mother a house and so forth. It was then that I heard negative comments about our father for the first time, and they were pretty ruthless. He (her father) squandered our gold and all that.
Despite these challenges, Samia emphasized that her father lived a modest life and did not accumulate personal wealth. She clarified that Nkrumah did not even own a house of his own, including the Peduase Lodge, which he had built with the support of women entrepreneurs and later dedicated to the state.
“Even from Achimota School. One economics teacher, who mercifully I don’t remember the name, while we were sitting in class, said ‘Nkrumah squandered our gold and I don’t know, did what and what’. And I’m thinking ‘oh dear’. I was too shy, helpless, and intimidated to even be able to defend our father to my teacher,” she narrated.
Despite the criticisms, Samia emphasized that her father led a modest life and did not amass personal wealth.
Shocked by Samia’s revelation that her father did not own a house, the journalist asked, “Your father didn’t have a house?”
The former MP retorted, “He did not. Strangely, incredibly, he did not. And it was a decision, like everything he did, it was a political decision.”
Regarding Nkrumah’s legacy, Samia highlighted his integrity, vision, and selflessness, noting that all his decisions were guided by political principles rather than personal gain.
She clarified that Nkrumah did not own a house, including the Peduase Lodge, which he built but dedicated to the state.
“We heard a lot of these denigrating comments. He amassed wealth, he did this. And of course, we knew very well, being his own family, that was far from the truth. Even the house, the land given to him, the house which he built with the help of strong women supporters, entrepreneurs at the time, which is today Peduase Lodge, where I was born, that could have been our house, but he gave it to the state. It’s the property of the Republic of Ghana, receiving dignitaries just as he wanted it to be.
“So, from personal experience, we knew that our father didn’t amass wealth. Our father wasn’t interested in those kinds of things. In fact, he was a leader who exemplified courage, a sense of purpose, vision, all the things we longed for and we need to emulate in our lives – leaders across the board, all kinds of leaders,” she said.
Reflecting on Nkrumah’s legacy, Samia highlighted his integrity, vision, and selflessness, noting that every decision he made was guided by political principles rather than personal gain.
“I have a very interesting story about how those same women who helped him with the construction of the house were very angry when he gave it back to the state because they wanted him to have a place to go at weekends and, you know, with his family.
“He explained to them why he had to be almost superhuman. So, he had a reason for everything he did. And the fact that he decided not to make money out of politics was a deliberate, studied political decision,” she added.
To which the former MP responded, “He did not. Strangely, incredibly, he did not. And it was a decision, like everything he did, it was a political decision.”
She also shared how the women who helped construct the house were initially unhappy when Nkrumah gave it to the state, wanting him to have a place for weekends with his family.
However, Nkrumah explained why he had to make such decisions, emphasizing his commitment to principles over personal gain.
