The PNC has learnt with deep shock and sorrow the death of the widow of Ghana’s first President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. To the party the death of Ghana’s maiden first lady is a big blow to the Nkrumaist political family. The party acknowledges the important role Madam Fathia played as first lady as she stood by her husband through thick and thin as the Osagyefo worked round the clock to turn things around at the difficult formative stages in the development of this country call Ghana. If Nkrumah was successful as president of this country it is because he had by his side a reliable and dutiful lady who believed in the agenda of the nationalist cause that her husband had embarked upon.

The PNC wishes to acknowledge the faithful and loyal manner Madam Fathia stood by her husband even in difficult times when the life of her husband and that of her entire family was incessantly threatened by the numerous assassination attempts on the life of Dr Nkrumah some of which took place right at the Flag Staff house where she lived with her family.

It was amazing how madam Fathia left her native Egypt and adopted herself in triumphant success to the Ghanaian society such that she came to be acceptable by all and sundry as the first lady of Ghana. Despite the fact that she was virtually humiliated with her family after the 1966 coup Madam Fathia though she re-located to Egypt has been very forgiving. She visited Ghana in 1972 when the mortal remains of her husband were brought to Ghana for burial. She even stayed in Ghana for a while and had to go back to her native Egypt under circumstances that are unfortunate to recount.

The PNC mourns with the Nkrumah’s family and wishes to identify itself to the idea of organizing a state funeral befitting the status of this peaceful woman who was indeed a personification of virtue.

Leader Dr. Edward N. Mahama