Hon Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah
Salaga South

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to read this Statement in this august House to celebrate the life of a Ghanaian who left footprints across the globe.

Mr Speaker, on 27th May, 2025, the world woke up to the distressing news of the passing of one of the world’s greatest scientists, Prof Felix Israel KonoteyAhulu, a trailblazer by every measure. A lot could be said about the 94-year lifespan of Professor Konotey-Ahulu. A Ghanaian physician, a Dr Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), a consultant physician and genetic counsellor, and haemoglobinopathy/sickle cell states in London. Prof Konotey-Ahulu was one of the world’s foremost experts on sickle cell disease.

Mr Speaker, that is the sheer breadth of the man who was born to a Presbyterian minister in OdumaseKrobo in 1930 and died as a towering scientist who taught in, at least, 21 universities around the world, including Turkey, Brazil, Greece, Singapore, Australia, India, Hungary, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and Egypt.

Mr Speaker, Professor Konotey-Ahulu was not just an accomplished research scientist, physician and scholar, but he played the piano and even once composed a hymn of seven verses with melody entitled, “Time was created”. Mr Speaker, the repertoire of Prof Konotey-Ahulu is too expansive and diverse to register in such a short tribute. In spite of this, I intend in this short tribute to raise my voice as a celebratory dirge to an African intellectual giant whose footprints in both science and community echoed around the world.

Mr Speaker, when I first met Prof Konotey-Ahulu in London, he was already in his autumn years. It was at an event to which he had been invited to at the Ghana High Commission in London where I was stationed as a Minister Counsellor and Head of Information. In spite of his remarkable achievements, he struck me as an affable, gracious and easily approachable person, deep discerning, gentle in his manners and willing to engage in whatever subject one threw at him. Those who knew him looked at him in awe and treated him with what I later came to learn was well deserved respect.

Mr Speaker, when I met him later in his professional setting as a physician at his Harley Street practice, I expected to see an impenetrable cold scientist who went about his duties matter-of-factly, but, again, I found something different. Of course, his knowledge and warmth were impossible to miss. He was quintessentially a medical professional who strived to bring healing and relief to his suffering patients. This is not an easy feat to achieve, especially for a scientist.

For many, being professional is to be stone cold and sometimes, to the point of being unchallenged. It is more so with a scientist whose default training and practice orients him or her to stick doggedly to the facts and nothing more. It is, therefore, to the credit of Prof Konotey-Ahulu that he was not just knowledgeable and warm, but profoundly touched his patients through his humaneness, assuring and fatherly nature.

Mr Speaker, I had battled chronic anemia and had been to several consulting rooms without a permanent treatment to my condition. In 2010, when I met Prof Konotey-Ahulu in his consulting room, I left with a permanent cure. He diagnosed me of a rare blood condition that inhibited my iron absorption. After this diagnosis, he placed me on an iron supplement called “Fero-Grad C” and he said to me, and I quote, “Zuwera, you can get this drug off the counter with a repeat prescription”. He added that, and I quote again, “Do not worry about the cost because it is cheap, but it will treat your condition”. Till date, I take my Fero Grad C religiously, every day, and it has kept me alive. Cheap, indeed, it was, and it remains cheap.

Mr Speaker, the passion of Prof Konotey-Ahulu straddled medicine; he had a deep-seated affection for his country. As many times as I visited his practice, he found time during consultations to talk about Ghana, a subject he spoke about with great fondness and deep insight. With him, I gained the abiding insight not to lose hope in our country, no matter how dire the situation becomes. This is because while many people I encountered saw the problems of Ghana, Prof Konotey-Ahulu sought and proffered solutions. He spoke with fondness about the Ghana he conceived where sickle cell and HIV/AIDS will be wiped out. He spoke passionately about the health delivery of the country and suggested practical ways in which funding would not just boost research, but also prop up our health system in ways where infrastructure aligned with scientific research and ultimately, render universal healthcare accessible and efficient.

Mr Speaker, today I raise my voice not only to sing a dirge, but to also invoke the legacy of a departed ancestor whose footprints defied time. A man whose service to humanity defied both borders and disciplines, a man whose conception of his motherland was matched by his willingness to put his shoulder to the wheel and contribute to its development in practical and enduring ways.

Mr Speaker, foremost among the lessons I take out of my encounters with Prof Konotey-Ahulu is the absolute necessity to never give up on our country. Equally important is the compulsion to do whatever we do in our professions in the public interest. As politicians, this clarion call could not be more resonant and timelier.

Mr Speaker, on behalf of the entire Parliament of Ghana, the ordinary people of Ghana who we represent, permit me, Mr Speaker, to extend my deepest condolences to Rosemary, his wife of 63 years; his children: David, Carys, and Lydia; his 11 grandchildren, six greatgrandchildren, and his sisters: Edna, Gritty, Ruby, Catherine, and Ann. Our prayers are with the entire extended family of Professor Konotey-Ahulu of Odumase Krobo.

In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I recognise that, in spite of his humble beginnings, Prof Felix Israel KonoteyAhulu bestrides the narrow world like a colossus, both in his personal achievements and his impact on the global stage. Like Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, I keep asking myself, and I quote: ‘‘Here was a man, when comes such another’’? Rest with the Lord, Prof Felix Israel Konotey-Ahulu, FGA, FRCPSG, FRCP, FWACP.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.

Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri

Mr Speaker, this is out of the ordinary and in this House, we have often witnessed such Statements that are delivered in commemorating politicians.

And more often than not, the focus has been personalities who have held notable or politically exposed offices. We have often not had such Statements and I want to commend my good Friend, Hon Zuwera, who has decided to blaze a different trail in speaking to a scientist, and for that matter, a public servant, not necessarily a politician.

Mr Speaker, I think we need to take a cue and going forward, this is the people’s representatives. We must not only be celebrating politicians; we must also find time and space to celebrate such characters. Mr Speaker, in other dispensation, funds are established and foundations are developed in honour of such personalities.

I think going forward, we may have to shy away from what we are used to, where the focus, more often than not, has been on politically exposed persons. One, it gets the youth to be carried along and then when we speak to their legacies, the youth can imbibe into the goodness and the good things they left behind. I think that the science community needs to take a good look at this. Such public-spirited will is something we must make a definite effort to recognise.

For me, it is something we have to do. We have a number of research institutions in our country like Noguchi and a number of them— The state must be seen to be leading the way to be celebrating such personalities who have distinguished themselves, devoid of political colouration and devoid of partisanship. That is how we can build a nation. So that irrespective of one’s political persuasion, if indeed the person is out there contributing to the good of our country, they be recognised at the right time and posthumously, they could be given all the recognition that they deserve. So, I commend my Colleague, and my heart goes out there to the family and the bereaved family entirely.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.