'Jake was very principled'– Osafo-Maafo

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, a former Finance Minister in the Kufuor Administration, on Monday, described the late Jake Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey as a well-read person and very principled.

He said: “The NPP has lost a patriot and a second-generation politician. There are very few second generation politicians that is those who take after their parents and Jake is one of them.”

Mr Osafo-Maafo, who spoke to the GNA in an interview, said he could attribute the NPP’s victory to power in 2000 to Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, saying he brought to bear his knowledge of marketing and communications.

The Former Finance Minister also said Jake had practical knowledge and understanding of the economy, and thus suggested very practical solutions to challenges in the economy. “He was a peacemaker, and he had a great sense of humour.

"He taught me that a message is as important as the messenger, messages should explain themselves and he was very practical and always smiling."

Mr Osafo-Maafo urged members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to work hard and win the coming elections to his memory.

He said the NPP would liaise with the family of Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey to give him a befitting burial.

Ghana received with shock and sorrow the news of the death of Mr Obetsebi-Lamptey, in the early hours of Sunday, March 19, at a hospital in London. He had earlier been hospitalised in a South African Hospital.

‘Jake’ as was he was popularly called, was born on February 4, 1946, to one of Ghana’s independence struggle heroes, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and a Dutch mother.

He was a celebrated Marketing and Advertising professional with many an achievement.

He took after his passion for nationalism from his father, a member of the Big Six.

Jake was a founding member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 1992, and as the Campaign Manager of Candidate John Agyekum Kufuor in the 2000 Presidential Election, he was credited with the victory of the NPP.

When the NPP took over the administration of the nation in 2001, he became the first Chief of Staff and Minister of Presidential Affairs in the Kufuor Administration, and thereafter became the Minister of Information and then Tourism.

During his tenure as Minister of Tourism, he introduced many projects and programmes to boost tourism in Ghana. Some of his programmes are the Paragliding Festival at Kwahu, which aimed at improving domestic tourism and the Joseph Project, which sought to reintegrate Africans in the Diaspora into the socio-economic systems of Ghana and Africa.

He was also credited with the Beautification of Accra, project.

Many tributes have invariably described him as a selfless, patriotic, affable and stupendous politician, who paid his dues to his country.