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The Chairperson of the Convention People�s Party (CPP), Ms Samia Yaba Nkrumah, has declared her willingness to step down to ensure merger talks between the CPP and the People�s National Convention (PNC) become a reality. According to the daughter of Ghana�s first president, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, her willingness to step down will send the right signals to the rank and file of both parties that she is ready to ensure �a united Nkrumaist party�. Addressing some leaders of the PNC at a public lecture organised by the party in Accra to commemorate the swearing-in of Dr Hilla Limann as President of the Third Republic of Ghana, Ms Nkrumah said it was imperative for the CPP and the PNC to unite. The three-hour event, which was on the theme: �The Limann We Know�, brought together key members of the PNC, including the party�s chairman Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan and 2012 presidential candidate, Hassan Ayariga. Background Over the past years, attempts to merge the two parties have proved futile as a result of timing and unresolved issues among the leaders of the two parties. The chairpersons and general secretaries of the CPP and the PNC were co-opted to be part of the unity committee of the two parties to speed up the processes leading to the unification of the parties. Originally because the unity committee did not include the general secretaries and party persons, decisions taken by the committee had to be submitted to the respective executives for scrutiny and dissemination to the rank and file, which caused delays. The General Secretary of the CPP, Mr Ivor Greenstreet, following the violence which broke out at the NPP headquarters in Accra in August, urged Nkrumaist parties to �focus on how to take advantage of any opportunity presented to them.� Sacrifices Ms Nkrumah said her readiness to step down and become a vice-chairperson of a united CPP and PNC party was a price she was willing and ready to pay to ensure the merger. �I am ready to step down or relinquish the position for the sake of a united Nkrumaist party and I am saying that with reference to the CPP and the PNC becoming one.� The CPP�s chairperson said she was optimistic that her sacrifice and that of the PNC would yield positive results to save Ghana from its current situation. She, therefore, proposed an urgent meeting between the leadership of the two parties to discuss some of the proposals on the table for a political alignment.