Mawuse Dake is dead

By A. B. A. Fuseini

Professor Mawuse Dake, a leading member of the Convention Party (CP), is dead. He died yesterday morning at his Madina residence after a sudden illness. He was 63.

A CP source which confirmed this in an interview in Accra yesterday disclosed that the late Professor Dake returned home at dawn yesterday from the United States where he attended an international conference. “Soon after his arrival home, he complained that he was feeling feverish and was experiencing pains all over his body. Little did anyone expect that these complains were serious enough to claim his life.” He died shortly afterwards.

The source, which described the death of the leading CP member as “very shocking and sad”, said the party at this critical stage of its history, would greatly miss his wide experience and wise guidance and counselling. The late Professor Dake, the source intimated was a selfless patriot not only in the service of the CP, but also for Ghana.

“As a mark of his distinguished service to the CP, he rose to become a member of the policy making central committee, representing the Volta Region, a position he held until his dramatic and untimely death” , the source pointed out.

It indicated that the party mourned this great loss of their departed comrade with his family and all Ghanaians and would liaise with the (family) to give him a fitting burial. The late Professor Mawuse Dake shot into prominence on the country's political landscape in 1979 when upon the lifting of the ban on party politics to usher in the country's Third Republic, he was chosen as the running mate to Alhaji Ibrahim Mahama, a Tamale-based lawyer on the ticket of the TUC backed Social Democratic Front (SDF) for the Presidential poll of that year.

After a brief sojourn in Kenya as a consultant, the late Professor Dake returned home and on the advent of the 31t December Revolution, he was appointed Secretary (minister) for Works and Housing by the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) led by President Rawlings. When the ban on party politics was lifted by the PNDC in 1992, he, like some other Nkrumahists, teamed up to form the People's Heritage Party (PHP) which was led by General E. A Erskine.

He was instrumental in getting the PHP and the National Independence Party (NIP), another Nkrumahists party led by Mr. Kwabena Darko of Darko Farms fame, to merge to constitute the People's Convention Party (PCP) which in 1996, chose his Excellency Mr. K. N. Arkaah, then the sitting Vice-President as its Presidential candidate. He was one of the key Nkrumahists who expressed misgiving at the consummation of the political marriage between the Nkrumahist PCP and Danquah-Busia New Patriotic Party (NPP) under the aegis of the Great Alliance led by Mr. J. A. Kufour and his vice, Mr. Arkaah, in 1996 which unsuccessfully tried to dislodge the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) from power in general elections that year. After the 1996 elections, he continued the struggle which eventually led to the merger of the PCP and the National Convention Party (NCP) to form the Convention Party (CP), a party whose membership he held until his sudden death. He was also one-time Chairman of Voradep Football Club and a Director of Accra Great Olympics.