The New Patriotic Party has learnt with grief, the untimely demise of Mr. Saabanye Basilide Kangbere, Upper West Regional Chairman of the Party, which sad event occurred on June 7, 2024. Mr. Kangbere has been Chairman of the Party in the Upper West Region since 2018 and previously served as a patron of the Regional Party.
Trailblazing the path of greatness, Chairman Heavy Weight, as he was affectionately known in political circles, never allowed his background to limit him as he successfully passed his Common Entrance Examinations in Owlo, a small town in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa district of the Upper West Region to study at the prestigious Daffiama Secondary School. Mr. Kangbere would again achieve another academic milestone as he passed with distinction, his Sixth Form Examinations before gaining admission to be trained as a teacher in a College of Education and subsequently to the University of Ghana where he majored in English.
As fate would have it, Mr. Kangbere would develop a relentless passion for politics and other matters of social concern while studying at the University of Ghana and became part of student activist groups. Upon his election as Secretary of the Students Representatives Council, he would team up with young men like Frederick Worsemao Armah Blay from 1977 to1978, and fearlessly opposed clandestine attempts by the Supreme Military Council of Ignatius Kutu Acheampong to impose the so called Union Government (UNIGOV) on Ghanaians.
Undoubtedly, but for the heroic activism of several coalition of professional bodies and student leaders like Mr. Kangbere in opposing the UNIGOV referendum of the Acheampong regime, Ghana would have succumbed to the dangerous experimentation of a non-Party State.
It is worthy of note that Mr. Kangbere’s life was not only limited to politics as he ventured into several enterprises including teaching and business. In the most part of his adult life, he taught for several years in numerous deprived communities in the Upper West Region and Nigeria, and later in the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia. He also set-up several English teaching schools in Saudi Arabia, some of which are still operational.
Mr. Kangbere was a devoted Catholic, husband, father of five and also a noble family man on whose shoulders several people from across the length and breadth of Ghana and even beyond were nurtured.
Despite his loss, the New Patriotic Party is comforted by his legacy of hard work and dedication to our dear country and extends our deepest condolences to the bereaved family, particularly his wife and children, and the people of the Upper West Region for the loss of such a great son of the land.
As a mark of respect in his honour, the Party directs that all Party flags fly at half-mast for the next seven days.
JUSTIN KODUA FRIMPONG
(GENERAL SECRETARY)
