Friday, 1st August, 2025
Hon Philip Fiifi Buckman
Kwesimintsim
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make this Statement to eulogise a patriot of our land who would finally join his ancestors tomorrow, 2nd August, 2025.
Mr Speaker, Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley, (popularly known as Uncle Sam or Sam Pee) was the mighty brain behind the founding of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Professionals Forum (ProForum). Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley was more than a founding member. He was the heartbeat of a bold and transformative idea that professionals within the NDC must arise and lend their voice and expertise to shape the national discourse. With unshakeable conviction and remarkable leadership, he built a movement that transformed the narrative. He made the NDC honourable and even enviable and contributed towards public support for the party.
Mr Speaker, like various philosophers and political thinkers, such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, the late Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley, with his mobilisation acumen, added to our democracy an actionable and achievable political strategy worthy of emulation in building our democracy.
Mr Speaker, the late Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley was a beacon of brilliance, humility and empathy. He was calm in adversity and gifted in resolving conflicts with wisdom, a natural consensus builder. He empowered others and led clarity, always pursuing unity in the pursuit of shared goals.
Mr Speaker, a chunk of his life was dedicated to service to Ghana as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, till 2014. He was an astute lawyer in good standing till his demise. He was a customary family head and believed in the customs and traditions of his people, and was rooted with his people in the Central and Ahanta land.
Mr Speaker, Ambassador Sam Yalley was not just a leader, he was the embodiment of the values we need to uphold, unity, service, courage and purpose. He was later appointed as Ghana's Ambassador to India. His tenure in New Delhi marked a significant period in the Ghana-India relationship. His advocacy and lobbying ability inured to the benefit of Ghana from India, increased investment interest in Ghana and expanded educational and cultural exchanges. He was a great advocate for female leadership and gender equity, and through that he nurtured many ladies who currently occupy high public offices and are performing credibly.
His calm demeanour, incisive commentary and great sense of fairness in both political, economic and legal discourse earned him great respect and love across political divides. He was loved by both young and old and treated all men with utmost respect and inspired greatness wherever the opportunity availed.
Mr Speaker, to conclude, may I humbly quote a verse in Methodist hymn book, 896. It says: “Now praise we great and famous men, The fathers named in story; And praise the Lord who now as then, Reveals in man His glory.” May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Thank you very much Mr Speaker for the opportunity.
Hon Kofi Iddie Adams
Buem
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make comments on the two Statements that have been made by our Colleagues.
The first one has to do with Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley. Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley was one person I closely worked with. Many are aware that the genesis of my politics is from the Central Region, so I worked so closely with Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley in many projects in the Central Region. I continued and became a national officer of the Party and he equally was in the national level.
So, we continued to work together. The very recent and last project we did was organising the Party’s national congress. We were members of the committee and I chaired that committee. We worked together. At all times, Ambassador would call and would drive to my office in Parliament just for us to have discussions because he wanted us to deliver one of the best congresses ever. Like the Statement indicated, he was the founder of the Professional Forum and this became established when I was the then national organiser.
Many did not understand what that was intended for, but I knew the benefits it would bring, not just to the NDC but to our politics. This is because we need the involvement of the professionals in the politics of our country. And truly so, the NDC and the political space have benefited from the creation of such a group in our party. The family has lost a great person; the NDC has lost a great person; the country has lost a great person.
I would say may his soul rest in perfect peace.
Hon Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
Takoradi
Thank you very much. Special regards to those two Statements.
Mr Speaker, I would like to start with Hon Sam Pee Yalley. As a child, we had known Sam Pee Yalley as an Assemblyman in Dansoman, around the SSNIT Flats. He was so popular that when he even transitioned into the NDC politics, people said they did not know that this was the man.
Mr Speaker, as a westerner, and Sam Pee Yalley being an Ahanta, he is one of the few politicians in our area whose politics was very solid and quiet. I still remember his humility in dealing with issues. I knew him very well because of the relationship we had with some of his nieces and nephews, the Oduro family of Takoradi. We were very close to their grandmother, Mrs Akoto. But one thing about Sam Pee Yalley was that, as an Ambassador, he was able to reach out to a lot of Ghanaians in that community in India. I quite remember my own operational director, Justice Acquah had worked with him in India during those days when he was an Ambassador, Ghana’s High Commissioner to India.
Mr Speaker, if we also take his family politics in the Ahanta area, I worked with Hon Sam Pee Yalley when I was the Regional Minister on the 50th Anniversary of Nana Baidoo Bonsoe, the Ahantahene. Even though the programme did not come up, I could see his humility, his sense of urgency, and his sense of connectedness to his people and to making sure that everything that we were doing in the Western Region, he was always in the loop. Hon Sam Pee Yalley has done so well for this country at National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) as ambassador. If you look at even his public discourse on politics, he was not always the angry type. He was always looking for solutions to the common problems of this country and, for that reason, I believe that he is one person who we need to commend.
Hon Collins Dauda
Asutifi South
I will begin by commending the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwesimintsim Constituency for putting this Statement together, eulogising one of us, Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley.
Sam Pee Yalley, as I affectionately called him, was a man full of humour; he was down to earth, a unifier, and, importantly, a very strong organiser. I met Sam Pee Yalley first at the Consultative Assembly when Ghana took the decision to transit from the military regime to a civilian regime and took up democracy as the way to govern this country. The then Government put together a Consultative Assembly and tasked the Assembly to come up with a draft constitution. That was when I met Sam Pee Yalley; as a young person then, he was very humorous and worked hard at the Consultative Assembly, which put together the 1992 Constitution.
I thought that the Statement should have captured that important part he played for Ghana. Sam Pee Yalley, as I have indicated, played several roles in the formation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as a young man and he continued to support the NDC and played various roles in the NDC until his demise. It is my wish that Allah accepts his soul in heaven.
May Ambassador Sam Pee Yalley rest in perfect peace.
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