The late Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei
Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has paid tribute to the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, who died March 20, 2023 at age 69.
He honoured the former lawmaker’s deep sense of duty, quintessential marksmanship and his profound intellectual prowess, asserting that he was the kind one will want to root for until “you can no longer do so, as he rests today.”
Remembering Dr. Akoto Osei’s role played in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), he described him as one of the very best MPs, the quality of whose contributions will continue to illuminate the Hansard and, indeed, the Parliament of Ghana.
“No hero worship intended, but he was a master performer when he purposed to perform, either in committee or plenary, the picture of a superior, incisive, thoughtful debater several octaves higher than the pedestrianism which, unfortunately, is creeping into the corridors of the legislature, notably in the spectacles mounted by the baptised and confirmed but unrecognised cheerleaders and yes men and women,” he said.
“I first encountered Akoto Osei properly in the lead-up to the 2004 elections. At that time, I was straddling Old-Tafo-Suame, which had been split up into Suame, which I appropriated, and Old Tafo, the otherwise weather-beaten turf that had suddenly become virgin, beckoning suitors. Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie (aka Sir John) and Dr. Akoto Osei, until then an advisor to the Minister of Finance, responded,” he recalled.
He recalled that Dr. Musah was the point of contact who set up the first face-to-face encounter with the possible MP, and that it was difficult to choose between him and Sir John, a childhood friend whom he and Papa Owusu Ankomah had persuaded to end his stay in London.
“I elected to lean towards Dr. Osei in order to strengthen the Caucus’s economics and finance department. This was to the chagrin of Sir John who, quite expectedly, thought it was an unkindest cut from a brother. My ultimate consideration was who would better serve the cause of the party,” Majority Leader disclosed.
“When the party lost power in the 2008 general election, Dr. Osei was the obvious choice for the position of ranking member on Parliament’s finance committee. That was where he blossomed: a very fine analytical brain who sieved through every financial agreement, critiquing when thorny issues surfaced and sifting the wheat from the chaff.
“He was quick to recommend what, in his considered opinion, would serve the national interest – very much unlike the “pummel-to-destroy-anything-that-comes-from-the-executive” attitude applauded lately,” Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted.
According to him, Ghanaians are unconvinced when they juxtapose Dr. Osei’s active days and debating talents in Parliament with the half-baked analyses of recent days.
By Ernest Kofi Adu