Ghana: Jake Obetsebi Lamptey is dead

Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, NPP’s former national chairman, is dead – He passed away in the UK after battling illness for some time. He was 70 years old. His death was confirmed on Accra based Kasapa FM Sunday morning by Bryan Acheampong, former aide to the deceased.

 “Till we meet again Sir! Till we meet again!! You were a very Good Man. Ghana has lost one fine Statesman..! RIP,” Bryan Acheampong posted on his Facebook wall.  The former Tourism Minister led the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition into power for the first time under the Fourth Republic in 2000. His tenure as national campaign manager brought President John Agyekum Kufuor to power and helped him win a second term in 2004.

Jacob Otanka “Jake” Obetsebi-Lamptey (born 4 February 1946) was a Ghanaian politician and a former television and radio producer. From 1984 to 1999, he worked with the World Health Organization (WHO). Obetsebi-Lamptey was the Plenary Speaker at the World Summit on AIDS, London, and Second International Symposium on the disease in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

He is a past president of the Advertising Association of Ghana. From 2005 to July 2007, Obetsebi-Lamptey served as Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations in the cabinet of President John Kufuor. Previously Obetsebi-Lamptey was Minister of Tourism and Modernization of the Capital (2002–05) and Minister of Information (2001–02). He was the National Campaign Manager of the victorious New Patriotic Party (NPP) during the 2000 Presidential elections, which saw the first constitutional (civilian-to-civilian) transition of power in that country.

He resigned his posts in July 2007 to campaign for the NPP nomination for the 2008 Presidential elections. As of February 2010, he was the National Chairman of the NPP. Obetsebi-Lamptey has several publications to his credit, covering topics from family planning to AIDS prevention in Africa.