By Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, Oct 18, GNA – The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has called for the need to celebrate people’s legacy and bring out the good in them for the emulation of the youth.
He added that it was incumbent on all to keep each other alive and maintain good relations.
Mr Bagbin made the call when he led a Parliamentary delegation to commiserate with families of late Felix Owusu-Adjapong, a former Majority Leader and late Enoch Teye Mensah, a former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo-Prampram in Accra and Tema respectively on Monday.
Describing late Owusu-Adjapong as a “great leader in parliament”, the Speaker noted that his death was shocking and sad because he did not hear of his death.
“He was such a person you could not avoid, if you do not like or love him.
“On the floor of the House, he passionately put his cases across,” he said.
Mr Bagbin also described late Mensah popularly known as ET Mensah’s death as a great loss to the country, National Democratic Congress, and Parliament of Ghana as whole.
“He was a gem who distinguished himself greatly wherever he found himself and task given. We should not just mourn but elougise and celebrate him,” he said.
Mr Bagbin therefore advocated those lives of the late MPs be celebrated than mourned, adding “the pain will always be there but for us now, the focus should be on celebrating their lives and legacy.”
The Speaker pledged Parliament’s support for both families throughout the funeral rites to ensure that the late MPs had a befitting farewell.
He presented bottles of water and envelopes to both families.
“…A team will be constantly in touch with families for the necessary arrangements,” he said.
Meanwhile, a memorial Mass was held for the late Owusu-Adjapong following his request to his family before his death.
Late Owusu-Adjapong, who was a stalwart of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), died at age 79.
Born on February 13, 1944, he was the MP for Akyem Swedru of the Eastern Region and a former Minister for Energy.
He was a member of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Parliament of Ghana.
He was first elected MP for Akyem Swedru in the 1996 Ghanaian general election with a total of 15,824 making 45.30 per cent of the total valid votes that year.
He was re-elected in the 2000 Ghanaian general election with a majority of 14,614 making 56.80 per cent of the votes. In February 2001, he was appointed Minister for Transport and Communications and in April 2003 Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.
In the 2004 general election, he was elected again as Member of Parliament with a majority vote of 21,048 making 66.94 per cent of the total votes polled that year.
In 2007, he resigned his ministerial position to make an unsuccessful bid for the Presidential nomination of the NPP.
He did not contest his parliamentary constituency at the 2008 General Elections, and Joseph Ampomah Bosompem won it for the NPP with a majority of 8,469.
In June 2008, he was appointed Minister of Energy, holding the post until the end of John Agyekum Kufuor’s government in January 2009.
He left behind his wife and four children.
The late Mensah died at age 77 in South Africa after battling ill-health for some time.
The former Ningo-Prampram MP was born on May 17, 1946.
He was also a Minister for Education and a Member of Parliament in Ghana from January 1997 till January 2017.
During the time of the PNDC military regime in Ghana, he was the long-time Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), akin to being the Mayor of the City of Accra. He joined the National Democratic Congress when it was formed in 1992.
He also stood for the Parliamentary election in 1996 and was elected MP for the Ningo-Prampram holding the seat for many years.
After the NDC lost the 2000 elections, he continued as a member of parliament.
The late Mensah lost the NDC primaries to Mr Sam George, the current Ningo-Prampram MP on November 21, 2015.
He once served as the Minority Chief Whip in Parliament prior to the Ghanaian parliamentary election in 2008.
In January 2009, he became the Majority Chief Whip in Parliament.
At the beginning of the Fourth Republic, he was appointed Minister for Youth and Sports by late President Jerry Rawlings. Late ET Mensah held that position through both terms of the Rawlings government. In January 2010, after a cabinet reshuffle, late President John Atta Mills appointed him Minister for Employment and Social Welfare.
He was a member of the Pan-African Parliament until January 2009, when he resigned after being appointed a member of state.
In January 2011, he was appointed Minister for Education after Madam Betty Mould-Iddrisu resigned.
On February 12, 2021, the late MP was unanimously elected as the representative of the Council of State for the Greater Accra Region.
He left behind wife and seven children.
GNA