Kufuor urges Ghanaians to resists autocracy

Kumasi, Sept. 3, GNA - Former President John Agyekum Kufuor, has urged Ghanaians to uphold individual freedom and resist traits of autocracy in all forms and manifestation.

This should be the way forward for the nation, he said, when eulogizing the late Robert Reginald Amponsah, Chairman of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), at a burial and memorial service held at the Wesley Cathedral Methodist Church in Kumasi on Thursday.

Former President Kufuor said the late Mr Amponsah was not only committed to the ideals of liberal democracy but stood for what "is right" adding that as Chairman of the Council of Elders, he was deeply involved in the nation's independence struggle.

He said the late Mr Amponsah who was an astute politician and Statesman and a staunch and leading member of the National Liberation Movement (NLM) and later the United Party, saw the bitter side of the political struggle of those times.

Former President Kufuor said Mr Amponsah, was principled in his convictions and had the courage to speak his mind on national affairs in clear and unambiguous terms even at the peril of his life.

He said just a year after Ghana's political independence, Mr Amponsah was thrown into jail for almost eight years only to regain his freedom after the 1966 coup d' etat.

Mr Kufuor recounted how the late Mr Amponsah became a founding member of the Progress Party (PP), on which ticket he was elected to Parliament in 1969 and subsequent appointment as Minister of Mines and Natural resources and he later became the Education Minister under the Busia Administration in the Second Republic.

"It is to his eternal credit that during his time as Mines and Natural Resources Minister, oil, was first struck off shore in the country at Saltpond and then under the successor Government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), oil in commercial quantities had been found after 30 years", former President Kufuor said.

He said Mr Amponsah's sacrificed for the stability and success of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), of which he was a "praise-worthy" founding member, noting that, his death has deprived the party of a great member of the Danquah-Busia tradition.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP Presidential Candidate for Election 2008, in a tribute said the late Mr Amponsah, affectionately called "R.R" by all and sundry mirrored poignantly the evolution in Ghana of the liberal democratic movement.

He lauded him for the significant part he played in the struggle towards Ghana's independence and said "no politician in our country's history has undergone sufferings, sacrifices and deprivations that afflicted R.R. Amponsah but in all this, his spirit was never broken. The Accra Calvary Methodist Church, where he worshipped, said in its tribute that he performed all duties and assignments given him in the service of God excellently and expected nothing in return. Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Member of Parliament (MP), for Kwadaso, said the democratic dispensation prevailing in Ghana today was a fruit borne out of sacrifices by the late Mr Amponsah and his generation. The Right Reverend Professor Emmanuel K. Asante, Presiding Bishop-elect of the Methodist Church, in a sermon, said the service was a celebration of the life of a man who struggled towards the nation's independence.

The late Mr Amponsah, he said, was a great son of Ghana and Africa, a great politician and a Christian, who believed in Christ as a personal saviour, a philanthropist, who assisted the needy and also fought for social justice, equality and good governance.

The Presiding Bishop-elect said detention, incarceration and denial of human rights did not stop Mr Amponsah from fighting for equal rights and justice for all.

The late Mr Amponsah was later in the day buried at Adidwan, near Asante-Mampong, his home town.