The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, yesterday called on the families of late former members of parliament for Akyem Swedru and Ningo-Prampram, Felix Owusu-Adjapong and Enoch Teye Mensah respectively to commiserate with them.
The two late former lawmakers were three and five-term lawmakers in the Fourth Republic and died on October 4 and 1 2023 respectively. They were 79 and 77 years.
Leading a delegation of members and staff of Parliament in Accra yesterday, the Speaker first visited the family of the late Owusu-Adjapong, a former Majority Leader and Minister of Energy before calling on the family of the late E.T. Mensah, as he was affectionately called, a former Majority Chief Whip and Minister of Sports.
At the residence of the late Owusu-Adjapong, the Speaker recalled the passion with which the deceased argued his case in the 12 years he was a legislator.
“We knew him by the title great leader and he indeed was a great leader who introduced a lot of terminologies which we still refer to.”
As minority leader, the Speaker said he had heated debates with the former majority leader all in the quest to better the lot of the Ghanaian people.
“He was a person you could not afford but love. That is why I keep on telling Ghanaians that these exchanges (we have in parliament) is not because we hate each other. It is the acceptance of diversity of humanity.
“He was one of those who put his case passionately across the floor of parliament and sometimes you could see his whole body moving but after that he’ll invite you to have a chat.”
In his view there needs to be a rethink of the conditions and welfare of sitting and former lawmakers who after service become a burden to their families or else people would shy away from the becoming MPs.
“People see the pegs of the office as the attraction and there is a magnification of parliaments as a pot of gold but that is not the case,” the Speaker said as he pledged of Parliament’s readiness to assist the family to give the late lawmaker a befitting burial.
At the residence of the late E.T. Mensah in Tema, the Speaker described his late colleague as an action man with “grandeur ideas” and a “darling boy” of the late Jerry Rawlings, the founder of the opposition National Democratic Congress.
The Speaker said “E.T. Mensah did a lot not only for Accra but for Ghana.”
To him, the late E.T. Mensah’s organisational skills were one of the reasons the NDC appealed to the electorate.
As minority leader, the Speaker said the late E.T. Mensah, as his chief whip, always anchored him and on daily basis and always interested in what could be done not only for the benefit of the minority caucus at the time but parliament as a whole.
“ET the sparkling young man is no more but his legacy sparkles on,” the Speaker said as he urged the family to sustain the legacy of the departed statesman.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
