Jones Ofori-Atta
Former Member of Parliament for Begoro (Fanteakwa), between 1969 and 1972, Okyenheneba Dr Akwasi Jones Ofori-Atta, has passed on. He died in Accra on November 30, 2020. He was 86 years.
Dr Jones Ofori-Atta was also a once a lecturer of Economics and later Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He was a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the Second Republic (1969-1972).
Work life
In 1980/81, Okyenhene Ba served as the spokesperson for the opposition on Finance during the Third Republic. He was known for his cogent distilling of economics, which was enough to gain the support of the Majority in the House to return their own government’s budget for ‘further and better particulars’.
In 1981, he was forced out of Ghana into exile, and found work as the Economic Advisor to the Governor of the Central Bank of Uganda. He returned to Ghana in 1992, with the lift on the ban on politics.
Okyenheneba contested, with Professor Adu-Boahen and others, for the role of presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Post 1993
Okyenehene Ba set up private practice as an economic consultant, worked with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and led the Economic team of the NPP, again in opposition, to draft their Manifesto of 1996.
He was awarded the Star of the Volta by President Kufuor after serving as Chairman of the Volta River Authority between 2001 and 2003.
He retired from politics and public life and returned to Kyebi, capital of Okyeman, to start an organic cocoa farm and support the establishment of the Kyebi Youth Choir, modelled on the template of the Winneba Youth Choir.
Family life
Okyenhene Ba is the father of Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Finance; Duke Ofori-Atta; Earl Ofori-Atta and Nana Yaa Ofori-Atta. He was preceded by his first wife Mrs Maud Ofori-Atta and is survived by his widow, Mrs Ellen Ofori-Atta, and children.
He has 9 grand-children.
He was the son of Okyenhene Yere Maame Duodua and Nana Sir Ofori Atta; and brother to Grace Amoakwa Ofori-Atta – Ghana’s first female National Librarian.
His father, Nana Sir Ofori-Atta, was the longest serving African member of the Legislative Assembly (the Parliament of the Gold Coast) and the first traditional ruler to establish a Stool Fund from which he founded schools and infrastructure in Okyeman.
Siblings
Some of the siblings of Okyenehene Ba, numbering over 100, were William ‘Paa Willie’ Ofori-Atta, a member of the Big Six, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Education, Youth and Sports in the Second Republic; His Excellency Kuntukununku Eugene Ofori-Atta, High Commissioner to Uganda; Mrs Adeline Akufo-Addo, First Lady of the Second Republic; Dr Susan DeGraft Johnson, first woman doctor of the Gold Coast; Mr AA Ampofo, Upper Regional Administrator; Mr Yaw Guggisberg Asante, Trade Unionist; Mr Ofori Panin Ofori-Atta (Beyeeman); and Mr Alexander Ofori-Atta, father of Okyenhene Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin.
Funeral announcements will be made in due course.
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