JH Mensah Goes Home

The late Statesman and NPP stalwart, Joseph Henry Mensah, will be laid to rest today at the new military cemetery.

A statement signed and issued by the General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu, announced that the body will be laid in State at the Accra International Conference Centre at 6:00am today.

This, according to the statement, will be followed by a Memorial Service later in the day. President Akufo-Addo, Vice President Bawumia, Former Presidents, Rawlings, Kufuor and Mahama, as well as Members of the Diplomatic Corps, are expected to pay their last respects.

Meanwhile, a church service was held yesterday evening for the late politician at the Christ the King Parish.

The veteran politician who died a month ago at the 37 Military Hospital was 89 years old.

Biography

Born October 30, 1928, J.H. Mensah’s political life serves as Finance Minister under Kofi Busia’s Progress Party (PP) administration from 1969 to 1972, which was cut short by Ignatius Kutu Acheampong’s coup.

He was also the Senior Minister under President John Kufuor decades later in 2001.

J.H. Mensah’s life in politics began in 1953 when worked as an assistant inspector of taxes.

In 1958, he joined the United Nations Secretariat at the Centre for Development Planning, Projections and Policies.

He returned to Ghana in 1961 to Head the National Planning Commission

Under his leadership, the National Planning commission drew up and implemented the Seven-Year Development Plan from 1962 to 1969.

In 1969, he was elected to Parliament and became the Minister of Finance until 1972.

After Acheampong’s 1972 coup, J.H. Mensah was imprisoned under the National Redemption Council (NRC) in 1975.

He was later forced into exile in the early 1980s but still headed a group opposed to the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings.

After Ghana entered its Fourth Republic, in 1992, he served on the African Advisory Council of the African Development Bank from 1993 to 1997.

In December 1996, J.H. Mensah successfully contested for a parliamentary seat in Sunyani East District on the ticket of the NPP and served as the Minority Leader in Parliament.

He was re-elected in 2000 when the NPP assumed the mantle of governance after over three decades in opposition.