The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Majority has paid tribute to the late Mr Enoch Teye Mensah, a Member of the Council of State.
A statement issued by Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business in Parliament, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the home-going of Mr ET Mensah, former Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, a former Chief Executive of Accra, a former Minister of Youth and Sports, was fast.
“ET, as he was affectionately called, was an activist in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and one of the people who believed that “power had found its proper place” as the cadres used to say,” the statement said.
The statement said love him or loathe him ET Mensah, the regime loyalist from Prampram, entered the political stage and played his part as the PNDC Metropolitan Secretary, now Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), of Accra and subsequently as the Minister for Youth and Sports.
It said the late ET Mensah’s style of governance raised questions, in terms, in particular, of his engaging in day-to-day management of the institution or sector that he superintended.
It noted that, however, to a large extent, ET Mensah achieved the desired results.
It said he would be remembered for qualifying the Black Stars at the expense of Nigeria for the
Nations Cup Tournament that was held in Senegal in 1992 after the country had missed two consecutive tournaments.
The statement said in Parliament, during President Kufuor’s regime, ET Mensah was the Minority Deputy Whip and later as the Chief Whip.
The statement said under late President John Evans Atta Mills, ET Mensah was initially part of the Majority Leadership as the Chief Whip, went into the Executive and came back from the Executive to be in the league of the “Wisemen”.
It said ET Mensah having served his constituents for five successive terms, lost his re-election bid in the NDC’s internal Parliamentary Primaries election to his own protégé, Mr Sam George.
The statement said when President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo came to power, in 2017, ET Mensah bounced back and got elected in to the Council of State as a representative for the Greater Accra Region.
It said ET Mensah carried a grey hair but was very evergreen in his limbs.
“The last encounter I had with him was at the Council of State where I met him in the company of the Chairman, Nana Otuo Srebuor and Mr Sam Okudjeto,” the statement said.
“We discussed the role of the Council in legislation. He was vibrant and I inquired into the secrets underpinning his physicality. He never shied away from conversation, and in that enterprise hand movement was an integral part.
Today, he is gone,” it said.
“On behalf of the NPP Caucus in Parliament we express our deepest condolences to the family, the NDC and Parliament. May his soul rest in peace.”
