The remains of the late statesman, Joseph Henry Mensah, have been interred at the private ceremony that was preceded by a requiem held at the Accra International Conference Centre.
The late Mensah, who passed on at age 89 on July 12 this year was a founding member of the New Patriotic Party and held positions of Minority and Majority leader in Parliament and later appointed Senior Minister by ex-President Kufuor.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, as well Ghana’s former presidents, Jerry John Rawlings, John Agyekum Kufuor, and John Dramani Mahama, leadership of the NPP and representatives of the various political parties, members of the diplomatic corps, were among others attended the funeral service.
President Akuffo Addo in a personal tribute which he captioned “the First Accuse” described described him as “one of the greatest servants of the Ghanaian people saying he was “Modest in his living, disdainful of material things and his passion was for the public work and the public good,.”
President Akufo-Addo also recalled J H Mensah’s leadership in Parliament, saying he always encouraged parliamentarians not to concentrate on winning the debate in Parliament but outside it. He said the late politician; JH Mensah insight on making good use of educational infrastructure, inspired his government’s decision on the double tract education system long which would be rolled out in September this year.
The Metropolitan Archbishop of the Catholic Church, Rev. Palmer-Buckle, in a sermon, commended JH’s family for burying him within forty days of his demise and entreated all to emulate the example.
The Archbishop of Cape Coast and Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Accra, Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, admonished Ghanaians to rethink the way time, money and resources are spent on funeral and the dead, when the living are there struggling to make ends meet.
Most Reverend Palmer-Buckle, said it is about time Ghanaians do well to bury their dead within one or two weeks to prevent the huge financial burden associated with the dead being put in the morgue for a very long time.
