Mumuni Bawumia is dead.

Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, the immediate past Chairman of the Council of State is reported dead. He died at the Tamale Regional Hospital today September 22, after a short illness. He was buried later in the day. He was 75. Alhaji Bawumia was until his death the Kpeli-Naa and the paramount chief of Kperiga in the Northern Region. He was a founding member of the Northern People's Party (NPP) in the early 1950s before the country's independence. Alhaji Bawumia was also instrumental in the success of the Convention People's Party (CPP). Through his leadership, the CPP made inroads in Northern Ghana and also took the lead in building its dominance on the political landscape of the country's independence struggle. Indeed, he was one of the first members of the Northern elite to join the CPP. Alhaji Bawumia became the Regional Commissioner of the Northern Region in the First Republic and later the Minister of Local Government under Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of Ghana. During the Third Republican Government under the Presidency of Dr Hilla Limann, Alhaji Bawumia was appointed Chief Executive of the Cocoa Marketing Board now Ghana Cocoa Board. In the PNDC era, he was Ghana's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and became chairman of the Council of State during the NDC regime. A family spokesman said the final funeral rites would be observed later.