Profile of Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu: Urban planner turned doyen of parliamentary politics

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu until earlier this week had a three-fold mandate that spanned the legislature and the executive arms of government.

He was the Member of Parliament for the Suame Constituency, the Majority Leader in Parliament (a role he occupied since 2017) and the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs - a key liaison between Parliament and the Presidency.

He has since let go of the Majority Leader position under circumstances that exposed fissures in the Majority Caucus.

Some senior members - Joe Osei Owusu (Bekwai) and Samuel Atta Akyea (Abuakwa South) among the senior members of the caucus to express their reservations openly.

Barely hours after his resignation, he was appointed as lead of the manifesto committee of New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Mahamudu Bawumia.

He is a non-lawyer and urban planner by training who has been at the forefront of Ghana's parliamentary leadership for close to two decades.

Who is Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu?

Profile as provided by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu holds a BSc. Planning Degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. He was a project Manager at DATAME Consult, Zimbabwe/Zambia from 1987 to 1989.

He became an entrepreneur, running his own business from 1990 to 1996. In 1997 he was voted into Parliament to represent the people of Old Tafo - Suame Constituency. The constituency was split up into two in the lead up to the 2004 elections. He presently represents the Suame Constituency.

As an astute politician, Hon. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has held several leadership positions from his first term in parliament when he was the secretary to the Minority Caucus in his first term in Parliament and became the Deputy Majority Whip from 2001 to 2002 and the Majority Chief Whip from 2002 to 2007.

He rose to become the Deputy Majority Leader and Minister of State in charge of Parliamentary Affairs from 2007 to January, 2009.

He then became the Minority Leader from 2009 to January 2013 and also from 2013 to January 2017.

During his tenure in Parliament, he has served on various committees in various capacities as a member or chairman. The committees include the Business Committee; Committee on Selection; Committee on Works and Housing; Committee on Youth and Sports; Committee on Lands and Forestry; Committee on Subsidiary Legislation; Special Budget Committee, Appointments Committee; Standing Orders Committee.

He was a leader of Ghana's Parliamentary Delegation to ECOWAS Community Parliament; leader of the ECOWAS Fact-Finding Mission to Ghana, La Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso on the conflict in La Cote d'Ivoire; leader of ECOWAS Community Parliament's Election Monitoring Delegation to Liberia; Leader of ECOWAS Community Parliament's Election Monitoring Delegation to Nigeria; Member and sometimes Leader of delegation to the US Commonwealth States' National Council of State Legislators (NCSL) which Ghana's Parliament, among six other African Parliaments, is invited to every year since 2002.

Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has been the Chairman of the African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC), Ghana Chapter since 2010; Chairman, Committee on Democracy and Human Rights, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) from 2010 to 2014; Chairman, African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption (APNAC), Africa Region since 2013; and Vice President, Global Organisation of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) in 2014. The Hon MP has represented Ghana's Parliament at Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) at both Africa and International levels on several occasions.

In August this year, in recognition of his accomplishments in Parliament and his service to deepening and expanding the frontiers of democratic governance, the University of Professional Studies, UPSA awarded a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) honoris corsa to Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has represented Ghana's Parliament on several occasions in countries across the world.

The Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has been in Parliament from 1997 till date and is currently Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

SARA