Erect Their Statues To Honour Them

Nana Kwame Ampadu

Nana Kwame Ampadu (31 March 1945 – 28 September 2021) was a Ghanaian musician and composer credited with numerous popular HIGHLIFE tracks and he is known to have composed over 800 songs. He was also known as Adwomtofo Nyinaa Hene, to wit King of All Musicians in Ghana. Ampadu was the lead singer, chief songwriter, and founder of the “African Brothers Band”. He is regarded as a pioneer of highlife music and one of the most illustrious Ghanaian musicians of the 20th century.

It is claimed that the hospital where Nana Ampadu was rushed to, denied him treatment as assistants were told by nurses the doctor on duty was asleep and could not attend to him. Obviously, hospital attendants did not know they were treating a legend with contempt, and his death was blamed on their negligence.

 

Christian Atsu

On 6 February 2023, top Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu went missing in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake; he was feared to be among those trapped under the rubble of Hatayspor’s headquarters in Antakya following the quake. Atsu had been scheduled to fly out of southern Turkey hours before the quake, but Hatayspor’s manager said he stayed with the club after scoring the winning goal in a 5 February match. On 7 February, club vice-president Mustafa Özat said Atsu had been rescued and was recovering in hospital, while on 8 February manager Volkan Demirel said that Atsu and sporting director Taner Savut were still missing. On 14 February, Atsu’s agent confirmed two pairs of his shoes had been found, but that Atsu himself had still not been found. On 18 February, confirmation was received by his agent that his body was recovered from the rubble of the building he was residing in. News outlets reported his death at approximately 6 a.m. GMT.

 

Frimpong Manso (Osofo Dadzie)

Frimpong Manso (1931 – 2020) also known as Osofo Dadzie, was a Ghanaian veteran actor and producer who was the lead character on Osofo Dadzie, a Ghanaian television drama series between 1970 and 1993. He died on August 10, 2020, aged 89. All the members of the Osofo Dadzie group are deserving of high national honours yet Frimpong Manso is nominated as the symbol of the group. During their active years, the whole nation went into deafening silence as people rushed to their television sets to watch the next drama in the offing.  The other legends of the Osofo Dadzie group were S.K Oppong, Super OD, Kojo Kwakye, Fred Addai, Bea Kissi, Mercy Offei, and Kingsley Kofi Kyeremanteng, among others.

 

Azumah Nelson

Azumah Nelson (born 19 July 1958, affectionately known as the Professor) is a Ghanaian former professional boxer who competed from 1979 to 2008. He was a two-weight world champion, having held the WBC featherweight title from 1984 to 1987 and the WBC super-featherweight title twice between 1988 and 1997. He also challenged once for the unified WBC and IBF lightweight titles in 1990. At the regional level, he held the ABU and Commonwealth featherweight titles between 1980 and 1982. Widely considered one of the greatest African boxers of all time, he is currently ranked as the 31st greatest pound-for-pound boxer of all time.

 

K.B Asante

Kwaku Baprui Asante (26 March 1924 – 22 January 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat, writer and politician. He was the Secretary to Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. Asante served under most Heads of State in Ghana, starting from Nkrumah, and also served as the Principal Secretary at the African Affairs Secretariat in the European Economic Community from 1960 to 1966.  From 1967 to 1972, he was Ghana’s ambassador to Switzerland, also concurrent to Australia, and from 1976 to 1978 he served as Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg.

Between 1982 and 1986, Asante served as Secretary for Trade and Tourism in the Provisional National Defence Council government led by Jerry Rawlings. Asante also served as Secretary for Education and Culture between 1986 and 1990. Between 1991 and 1993, he was High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland.

Asante wrote a weekly column, “Voice from afar”, in the national newspaper, the Daily Graphic.  In 2003, a collection of his weekly articles was published as a book with the same title as his column.

Asante was educated at Achimotta School and later returned there to teach Mathematics.

 

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan ( 8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a top Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. The second African and the first from Sub-Saharan Africa to assume the lofty position, having risen through the structures within the organization. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.  He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation as well as chairman of  The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.

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