STATEMENT BY HON FRANCIS ADDAI-NIMOH ON THE DEMISE OF FORMER FIRST LADY, H.E. THERESA KUFOUR
I’m saddened to hear about the demise of Mrs Theresa Kufuor, former first lady of the Republic of Ghana and wife of former president H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor.
Mrs Theresa Kufuor has been a great source of inspiration for many young women in the NPP and Ghana. One can reasonably attribute part of the successes chalked under President Kufuor to her as a wife who supported her husband.
Mrs.Theresa Kufour
I extend my heartfelt condolences to former president Kufuor, the family, the NPP, and the people of Ghana.
Ghana has lost a great personality whose legacy will transcend generations.
Damirifa due!
…….sign……..
Ing Francis Addai-Nimoh
Former MP, Mampong constituency and NPP flagbearer hopeful
Presidential aspirant of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ing. Francis Addai-Nimoh, has told Akoma FM that Alan Kyerematen’s resignation from the party came as a shock to him.
He said though the decision is a personal one, it will have an effect on the party.
Speaking to Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin on GhanAkoma on Akoma FM 87.9MHz in Kumasi, he said the party didn’t expect Alan Kyerematen to resign despite the current happenings in the party.
The former Trade and Industry Minister announced his decision to contest the 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate on Monday, September 25 after he resigned.
His decision to resign from the NPP and also contest 2024 presidential election as an independent candidate has stirred mixed public reactions with some praising him and others not happy about his move for abandoning the NPP.
This is the second time he is taking such a decision after a similar one in 2008. Then, he accused the party leaders and some members of the party of harassing his supporters.
Reacting to the issue on Ghanakoma, Ing Francis Addai-Nimoh said he didn’t expect Alan Kyerematen to defect from the NPP at this crucial time.
“He is my senior brother, [we] speak all the time but he didn’t inform me of such a decision.
“This has come as a shock to me. I only heard it on [radio and tv] rather and other social media platforms,” he said.
“What my senior brother disclosed this week shocked me. It really shock me.
“No member of our great party will be happy that a bigwig like Hon Alan will resign,” he stated.
According to him, this is something every member of the NPP family won’t be happy about.
Ing. Addai-Nimoh is one of the four candidates for the November 4 Presidential Primary of the NPP.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reiterated the commitment of his government to completing the “Agenda 111” Hospital Project, whose sod he cut in August 2021.
According to President Akufo-Addo, thus far, eighty-six (86) district hospitals, two (2) regional psychiatric hospitals and the western regional hospital are ongoing, which are all at various levels of completion.
Speaking at the commissioning of the St. Michael’s Specialist Hospital, on Saturday, 30th September 2023, at Abeka Lapaz, the President stated that “the average completion rate of the eighty-nine (89) ongoing projects is fifty-two percent (52%), with work at some of the sites being seventy to eighty percent complete.”
He told the gathering that the constructions of these 89 hospitals are being undertaken by indigenous Ghanaian contractors, who have provided direct and indirect jobs to Ghanaians.
Nana Akufo-Akufo
“There is an average number of one hundred and twenty (120) workers on each construction site, and, when completed, an average of five hundred and forty-nine (549) persons will be employed in a district hospital, one thousand, three hundred and forty-three (1,343) in a regional hospital, and nine hundred and forty-seven (947) in each psychiatric hospital,” the President said.
He continued, “This means that sixty-seven thousand, six hundred and thirty-five (67,635) people will be employed in the Agenda 111 hospitals.”
The Agenda 111 initiative is providing 101 standard 100-bed district hospitals with accommodation for doctors and nurses in districts without district hospitals; 6 new regional hospitals for each of the 6 new regions; rehabilitating the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region; building 1 new regional hospital for the Western Region; and 2 psychiatric hospitals for two of the three (3) zones of the country, i.e. Middle and North. The entire package is estimated at a cost of USD$1.765 billion.
“Beyond the building of these new healthcare facilities, my vision is to help make Ghana the Centre of Excellence for Medical Care in West Africa by 2030, leveraging on Ghana’s favourable status in the Region as the most peaceful country in West Africa, a beacon of democracy on the continent, and a land of opportunities,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo reaffirmed his government’s is committed to improving access to essential and quality health services through the provision of the necessary health infrastructure, equipment and logistics, including the deployment of appropriate technology as part of the country’s drive to attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Since 2017, the President noted that his government has restored nursing trainee allowances, recruited the highest number of healthcare workers in the history of the 4th Republic, with fifty-eight thousand and forty-one (58,041) health workers employed to supplement the existing health sector workforce at the height of COVID-19 alone.
“The Ghana Ambulance Service has been equipped with three hundred and seven (307) ambulances, that is 1-Constituency-1-Ambulance, in comparison to the fifty-five (55) ‘semi-functioning’ ambulances that existed during the time of the Mahama government. We have made improvements in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make access easier, and we are using drones to deliver emergency medical supplies to remote areas,” he added.
The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rev Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante, has commended the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, for his quality of leadership as the Education Minister describing him as “the most innovative Education Minister in Africa”.
He explained that the kind of innovations that Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has brought into the nation’s education space were apt and gradually shaping the nation’s fortunes through education.
Rev. Prof J.O. Y Mante, announced this in his closing remarks on Saturday during the 85th anniversary of the Presbyterian Boys Senior High School, at Legon.
Rev Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante,
President Akufo-Akufo,Dr.Adutwum,Presby Moderator and other dignitaries at the event
The event which was graced by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and other dignitaries from across the globe had the theme “Building upon a Legacy of Excellency-come along and join us”.
Also in attendance were the former Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Michael Oquaye and Dr Eric Nkansah, Director General of the Ghana Education Service.
Progression
The Moderator opines that should the ongoing transformation in the Education sector be allowed to continue for years, it would go a long way to speed up the transformation of the nation’s economy.
Rev. Prof. Mante appealed to all stakeholders in the education sector to continue playing their roles effectively to speed up the development of the country.
The Headmaster of the School, Mr David Odjidja, enumerated the various awards and laurels chalked by the school over the past years attributing the gains made to hard work, teamwork and dedication of both teaching and non-teaching staff with support from other stakeholders.
He appealed to the government to help provide the school with a new assembly hall and a minibus to enhance effective teaching and learning activities in the school.
The Headmaster lauded the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government for the various development projects and appealed for the completion of the ongoing road tarring on the campus to enhance movement in the school.
Former Member of Parliament for the Ningo-Prampram constituency and Council of State member, ET Mensah has died aged 77.
Citi News understands he died in South Africa last night after battling ill-health for some time.
This comes on the back of the demise of former First Lady Theresa Kufuor on Sunday, October 1, 2023.
Enoch Teye Mensah (born 17 May 1946) was a Minister for Education and a Member of Parliament in Ghana from January 1997 till January 2017.
He was popularly referred to as ET Mensah and was married with seven children.
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.
E.T.Mensah
He also stood for the parliamentary election in 1996 and was elected MP for the Ningo-Prampram constituency, holding the seat for almost a decade.
After the NDC lost the 2000 elections, he continued as a member of parliament. Mensah lost the NDC primaries to Sam George on 21 November 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 President Jerry Rawlings. Mensah held that position through both terms of the Rawlings government. In January 2010, after a cabinet reshuffle, President John Atta Mills appointed him Minister for Employment and Social Welfare.
Mensah was a member of the Pan-African Parliament until January 2009, when he resigned after being appointed a member of state.[8] In January 2011, he was appointed Minister for Education following the resignation of Betty Mould-Iddrisu.
On 12 February 2021, Mensah was unanimously elected as the representative of the Council of State for the Greater Accra Region.
Former First Lady of Ghana, Theresa Kufuor has passed on at age 87.
Theresa Kufuor was the wife of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, the second President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.
She was a retired nurse and midwife.
Theresa Kufuor (née Mensah; born 25th October 1935)
A family source confirmed to Graphic Online on Sunday night that the former First Lady died on Sunday [October 1, 2023].
Education
Kufuor started her education at the Catholic Convent, OLA, at Keta in the Volta Region of Ghana. She later went to London, where she was educated as a Registered General Nurse, in the Southern Hospital Group of Nursing. Edinburgh, Scotland.
After further study at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford and Paddington General Hospital, London, she qualified as a State Certified Midwife with a Certificate in Premature Nursing.
Personal life
Theresa married John Kufuor when he was at age 23 after they met at a Republic Day Anniversary Dance in London in 1961. They got married in 1962. She has five children with John Kufuor, former president of Ghana, J. Addo Kufuor, Nana Ama Gyamfi, Saah Kufuor, Agyekum Kufuor and Owusu Afriyie Kufuor. She is a mother of five, and a grandmother of eight. She is a devout Roman Catholic.
Despite being the first lady of Ghana for eight years between 2001 and 2009, she has managed to maintain a low profile in the political arena. In 2007 she pushed for policy changes in the Government’s white paper on Educational Reforms towards the implementation of UNESCO‘s Free compulsory universal basic education (FCUBE) program for kindergarten children.
She founded the Mother and Child Community Development Foundation (MCCDF), a non-governmental organisation operating in Ghana and Canada that supports work in prevention of mother to child transmission.
Nana Osei Yaw, the Kyidomhene of Sabin Akrofrom in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region, has strongly denied rumours of the Chief of Sabin Akrofroma Nana Osei Kofi, selling an ultra-modern court complex initiated by the traditional leaders of the area.
The Kyidomhene and the Contractor of the project
According to him, the wild allegation by some faceless and coward persons is a calculated attempt to dent his reputation.
Some scenes from the stalled court complex
The Sabin Akrofrom Kyidomhene, therefore, urged the public, especially the Sabin Akrofrom residents both home and abroad, to treat rumours or allegations about Nana Osei Kofi and his supportive elders with the necessary contempt it deserves.
Items supplied by the Judiciary Service
The Kyidomhene, together with the contractor of the court complex, initiated and solely financed the Sabin Akrofrom Traditional Council and invited a section of journalists to tour the court complex to verify the situation.
As a backgrounder!
Nana Osei and his elders singlehandedly financed the modern court complex which is almost in a state of completion.
The court complex which has about 10 offices, including a judge office, also has a borehole water project attached to it.
Although the Judiciary Service of Ghana has already supplied chairs and tables among other materials to furnish the court complex, the project has been abandoned due to the ungrateful attitude of some Judiciary Service officials.
The court complex is on four plots of land bought back from some private developers by the Nana Osei-led administration; when he took over, there were not enough lands for such a project. The remaining two plots near the court complex have been designated for a police station complex.
The NewTrustNewspaper has gathered that an ultra-modern three-storey commercial centre project (market) initiated by Nana Osei Kofi, the Sabin Akrofromhene, is progressing steadily.
The project, which is being financed by the Sabin Akrofrom Stool led by Nana Osei Kofi, is expected to be completed in three(3) years’ time.
The state of work as at the time of our visit
Already the contractor is done with the main foundation which is expected to have about 300 shops, hundreds of stalls, lorry park, fire service station, banking hall, washrooms, among other facilities.
Taking a section of the media round the project at the main Kumasi-Obuasi road on a four-acre land, the Kyidomhene of Sabin Akrofrom, Nana Osei Yaw, and the contractor for the project, Mr.Obiri Yeboah, said the project formed part of the Nana Osei Kofi-led administration to create jobs and also develop its community.
He said the construction of the ultra-modern commercial centre or market is in response to the numerous requests by his people, especially traders, to get a decent and convenient place for their business activities.
According to Sabin Akrofrom Kyidomhene, when the project is completed, it would go a long way to prevent drivers from loading on the sideways of the main Kumasi-Obuasi road in the area because of lack of lorry park.
Nana Osei Yaw disclosed that since he was enstooled as Sabin Akrofromhene, Nana Osei had set up a credit union to support his educational fund aimed at supporting brilliant and needy students in the community.
He revealed that so far a number of beneficiaries of the Sabin Akrofromhene’s educational fund had graduated with first and second degrees while others are still in school.
Apart from the ongoing Sabin Akrofrom commercial centre project, the construction of an ultra-modern toilet facility project is also progressing steadily. The construction of all these projects is aimed at developing the community without waiting for the government.
It is unfortunate that apart from the main town road linking other communities, Subin Akrofrom in the Atwima Kwanwoma District has not benefited from any monumental project from the government.
Nana Osei and his elders have also singlehandedly financed a modern court complex which is almost in a state of completion.
The court complex which has about 10 offices, including a judge office, also has a borehole water project attached to it.
Although the Judiciary Service of Ghana has already supplied chairs and tables among other materials to furnish the court complex, the project has been abandoned due to the ungrateful attitude of some Judiciary Service officials.
The court complex is on four plots of land bought back from some private developers by the Nana Osei-led administration; when he took over, there were not enough lands for such a project. The remaining two plots near the court complex have been designated for a police station complex.
The Vice President of Ghana, HE Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Second Lady, HE Hajia Samira Bawumia, were in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, to join the former General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party and former presidential candidate hopeful, Mr. Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, and his family to celebrate the Ten (10) year anniversary of the death of the latter’s late mother, Mrs. Margaret Agyepong, at the St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church at Asokore Mampong.
Dr.Bawumia and Mr.Kwabena Agyapong
The Vice President was the only presidential aspirant who participated in the memorial service, a touching gesture which communicated his unmatched magnanimity to admirers.
Some scenes from the event
The congregation was amazed by his calm, humble and accommodating disposition making the members uncontrollably ecstatic.
Mr. Agyepong, in expressing gratitude to the Vice President, declared that, he [Dr. Bawumia] will win massively in both the November 4 presidential primary and the 2024 General Elections because of his good heart.
“Your victory in the elections would be massive because of your good heart. God will grant all your heart desires”, the former Chief Scribe of the NPP declared.
Accompanying the Vice President and the Second Lady were the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon. Simon Osei Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of NPP, Mr. Bernard Antwi Boasiako, affectionately called, “Chairman Wontumi, the MMDCEs, the MPs, the Regional Executives of the party, the forty seven (47) Constituency Chairmen of the region, the Regional Women’s Wing of the party, other government functionaries, numerous other stalwarts of the party and some former supporters of Hon. Alan Kyerematen who have recently joined the camp of the Vice President following the resignation of the former Minister for Trade and Industry.
The NPP will elect its flagbearer in November, and the Vice President is already the obvious favourite. Another former aspirant, Mr. Nsafoah Poku, recently endorsed him.
