The death of former Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has created a dark cloud over the country as different classes of individuals have expressed shock at the demise of the former statesman.
President Akufo-Addo, who was the first statesman to express his sentiments, described the former Veep as a fine public servant in a Facebook post. Immediate past President John Mahama tweeted his chagrin at the loss of his deputy.
Reports indicate that Mr. Amissah-Arthur met his untimely passing after he collapsed at the Airforce Gym at 37 in Accra Friday morning.
It has however emerged that prior to this incident, founder and leader of the Glorious Word Ministry International Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah had called for prayers to be made on behalf of the former Vice President during his New Year prophetic service on January 7, 2018.
At the church service, Rev. Owusu Bempah disclosed that an ex-president of Ghana would die, resulting in a national mourning.
“…there are some people we call Statesmen. Example of such people are the ex-presidents of Ghana. If we don’t pray this year, Ghana will have a big funeral… but we will pray”, he predicted.
The deaths of several high profiled individuals have been predicted by some prophets in the country, drawing lots of criticisms and backlash since the public hold the view that these persons use such incidents to advertise themselves and their churches.
Profile of Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur
Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, born April 29, 1951, was an economist, academic and politician who was the sixth Vice-President of Ghana, in office from August 6, 2012, until January 7, 2017, under President John Dramani Mahama.
Previously he was Governor of the Bank of Ghana from 2009 to 2012.
He was sworn in as Vice-President on August 6, 2012, following vetting by the Parliament of Ghana.
He was nominated by President John Dramani Mahama to be the vice-president a week after Mahama himself was sworn in. This followed the sudden death of John Atta Mills on July 24, 2012.
Economics and consultancy
Amissah-Arthur was a research assistant at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research between 1974 and 1975.
He later joined the Economics Department as a teaching assistant from 1977 to 1978, going on to become an assistant lecturer in 1979. He lectured at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana between 1980 and 1988.
He had also been a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Anambra State College of Education, Awka, Anambra State, Nigeria (August 1981 – July 1983).
He went into politics until 1997. He worked as a consultant for the World Bank in The Gambia. He also served as a consultant for the Netherlands' government education project in Ghana.
He then worked as Senior Economist for the Sigma One Corporation in Ghana between 1998 and 2000. Between 2001 and 2002, he was on assignment for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
Politics
From 1983 to 1986, Amissah-Arthur served as a special assistant to the Secretary of Finance and Economic Planning, Kwesi Botchwey, in the Provisional National Defense Council government.
Subsequently, he was Deputy Secretary for Finance in the PNDC government from February 1986 to March 1993. From April 1993, he continued as the Deputy Minister for Finance in the Rawlings government after the establishment of constitutional rule until March 1997.
Amissah-Arthur was appointed as Governor of the Bank of Ghana in October 2009 by President John Evans Atta Mills. He held this position until August 6, 2012, when he became Vice-President of Ghana following the death of Atta Mills.
Personal life
Amissah-Arthur is married to Matilda Amissah-Arthur with two children. He is a Christian and is known to worship at the Calvary Methodist Church at Adabraka in Accra.
