Friday, 28th March, 2025
Hon Thomas Worlanyo Tsekpo
Hohoe
Mr Speaker, with a solemn heart, I rise to pay tribute to an exceptional leader, a dedicated servant of the people, and a relentless advocate for progress—
The late Hon Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo. Her passing on Wednesday, December 25, 2024, at the age of 70, following a brief illness, is an immense loss to her family, the people of Hohoe, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the entire nation. Hon Heloo served with unwavering commitment as the Member of Parliament for Hohoe from January 7, 2013 to January 7, 2021. She was a visionary leader who believed in power of leadership to transform lives, and she dedicated herself wholly to the service of her constituents and the nation.
During her tenure as Deputy Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation from 2013 to 2017, Hon Heloo was at the forefront of sustainable development and environmental protection. Her notable contribution included spearheading the PCB Project to enhance environmental safety and championing initiatives that provided computers and laptops to key academic and industry institutions, ensuring that science and technology remained a driving force for national progress.
Hon Heloo was a formidable voice in Parliament and a dedicated Member of the Appointments Committee. She played a crucial role in scrutinising presidential appointments, ensuring that only the most competent individuals served the nation. Between 2017 and 2021, she fearlessly defended the rights of the vulnerable and did not shy away from holding the Executive accountable, including her bold critique of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for omitting the plight of the kidnapped Takoradi girls in his 2019 State of the Nation Address.
Mr Speaker, Hon Heloo was deeply committed to development and stability of Hohoe. Her tireless advocacy for peace and security played a significant role in fostering lasting harmony between the people of Nkonya and Alavanyo, as well as between the Gbi people and the Zongo communities in Hohoe. Her relentless pursuit of progress led to the construction of modern classroom blocks, eliminating the era of schools under trees.
She championed scholarships and financial aid for brilliant but needy students and spearheaded initiatives that improved healthcare, including the establishment of CHPS compounds, an ambulance service, midwife quarters, and routine health screening to ensure the well-being of her constituents. She was also instrumental in lobbying for the rehabilitation of major roads, including the historic Wli Todzi Road, significantly improving accessibility and economic opportunities for the people in the region.
Beyond politics, Mr Speaker, she was a passionate advocate for women’s empowerment. As a founder of ProLink, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to advancing the right of health, education and socio-economic status of the disadvantaged individuals, particularly women and girls, she left a lasting impact in their lives.
Her support extended to persons with disabilities, as she provided office accommodation and regularly assisted the school for the deaf and the special school in Hohoe Constituency with essential food supplies. Her commitment to vocational training saw countless young women empowered with skills in hairdressing, dressmaking, and batik tie-dye. As President of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA), she further demonstrated her lifelong dedication to public health and gender empowerment.
HER LEGACY LIVES ON
Mr Speaker, today we mourn not only a leader, but a compassionate mother, a mentor, and a selfless servant of the people of Hohoe and the nation at large.
Hon Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo has left behind a legacy of resilience, advocacy and transformation. Her influence will forever be felt in Hohoe, in Parliament and across the length and breadth of our mother Ghana. As we bid her farewell, let us take solace in the fact that she lived a life of purpose and impact. May her soul rest in perfect peace and may the almighty God grant her eternal rest.
Rest well, Hon Dr Bernice AdikuHeloo. Your memory will forever remain in our hearts. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Hon Fred Kwesi Agbenyo
Guan
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Let me start off by thanking my Colleague, my Friend and Brother, Member of Parliament for Hohoe Constituency for eulogising the memory of our mother, Hon Dr Bernice AdikuHeloo.
Mr Speaker, in 2011, I contested in the NDC primaries with Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo in Hohoe Constituency. If we recall, at that time, the current Republic of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL) was part of the Hohoe Constituency. The Leader wants to know what happened in that contest. She disciplined me on it and I supported her.
Mr Speaker, I think that it is a very great loss. Our mother was very affable. She was very accommodating. Even though we were political opponents at the primary level, right after the primaries, she invited me over to the House and we joined hands in campaigning throughout the Constituency until she won the elections.
In fact, when she was appointed Deputy Minister of Science and Environment, she invited me over to the office. She wanted to know if I wanted to come and assist her to work in the office which Mr Speaker, for other responsibilities, I declined.
Throughout my campaign in 2024, any time I hit a block, I would call on her and seek her advice as to how to proceed and she was always very open to assist.
So, when I heard about her death, I was seriously taken aback. The good news is that the Lord loves us more than we love ourselves. We can only pray that her soul will rest perfectly in the bosom of Father Abraham. And with the good work that she began in the Hohoe Constituency, all of us will join hands, that every young person in that Constituency will have access to quality education, that the roads in that Constituency will be fixed, that the young people will get employment opportunities and that the place will develop accordingly.
Mr Speaker, on that day she will be laid to rest, all of us will be in her way to support her family and the Constituency and make sure that she is given a befitting burial. Once again, I thank you very much, my Brother, for bringing this issue up in the House.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to it.
Hon Tweneboa Kodua Fokuo
Manso Nkwanta
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to respond to the Statement by Hon Worlanyo, on the person of one of our own, Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo. Hon Worlanyo, thank you for the Statement.
I know you are my Brother’s student, so I consider you as my student as well. I extend my condolences to the family of the departed. I know at 70, somebody might say, yes, she has gone a bit, but at 70, the expectation of most of us would have been that she would go a bit more so, we will consider it as sudden.
Mr Speaker, death is inevitable, as we know, but what matters most is the legacy that we leave behind. That is key, and I think that is why we are remembering her today. If I go through the presentation that was made, she worked for peace in the AlavanyoNkonya conflict. She helped in the construction of modern classroom blocks. She championed scholarship and financial aid to brilliant but needy students.
Mr Speaker, these are the sort of things that we expect each and every one of us to do while we have life. I extend my condolences once again to the family and I urge all of us to do our very best while we have the life. I wish the family the best. I console them in this difficult time.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Emmanuel Drah
Upperwest Akim
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make a comment on the Statement made by Hon Member for Hohoe in connection with the late Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo.
Mr Speaker, the late Dr Bernice Adiku-Heloo, I know, was the founder of Pro-Link Organisation and a board member. It is an international and local Non-Governmental Organisation that has worked with United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Geneva Global Incorporations, Plan International Ghana, and other International Donor-Funded Organisations. I have been with her for 10 years as Director of Finance, and we have worked together to help the vulnerable, women and children with over seven satellite offices across Ghana on HIV and malaria programming.
So, she has contributed a lot to Ghana’s economic growth, especially in the area of women and children. May her soul rest in perfect peace.
Hon Patrick Yaw Boamah
Okaikwei Central
Mr Speaker, let me use this opportunity to express my heartfelt condolences to the family of our departed sister. We entered this Chamber together with her, a very pleasant lady.
Mr Speaker, it was not until a couple of weeks ago that I went to Dzorwulu, somewhere around Ghana Gas, that I saw her banner. I drove past it, drove back, and looked at it again, just to be sure of what I was seeing. It was the first time I was seeing a banner in that corner and it really struck me that people we serve with, sometimes a phone call to even check on them while they are still members of Parliament, is very difficult for some of us to do.
We just come in, work, and leave. We do not even know where people live or how they are faring, only to come and pay our last respects to them. It is very sad as Members of Parliament to live such a life. We need to know a bit more about ourselves, where we live, what we do, in and out of this Chamber. I think it is something that we must inculcate.
Mr Speaker, she was a Deputy Minister, a mother, a developmentoriented person that we all knew. You will never see this lady engaged in anything outside her work as a Member of Parliament, and I am happy my good Friend paid this glowing tribute to her and Mr Agbenyo, my Friend from SALL, who was beaten by
Hon Heloo in her primary. So, welcome to the House, and let us do whatever it takes to bid our Sister farewell.
May her soul rest in peace.
Hon Kwame Governs Agbodza
Adaklu
Mr Speaker, it is with great sadness that I comment on this Statement by my Colleague, the Hon Member for Hohoe.
Mr Speaker, you and I served alongside Hon Heloo in this House, and most of the time, she would strongly advocate for issues related to women in this House. Hon Doyoe Cudjoe, many other women and herself strongly advocated for women.
Mr Speaker, she voluntarily decided not to contest, and as a matter of fact, when she did not contest, the NDC lost the seat, but she continued to work in her community in many ways. I remember very well that one of her main concerns was to see to the resolution of the Hohoe water project and the extremely terrible road leading to Hohoe.
Mr Speaker, some of us got to know that she was not very well, and like many situations, you and I know that when people exit this House, in many cases, they are left on their own. And like my very good Friend, Yaw, said, once the person is not here, it is as if there is a bit of a disconnect. We hardly find the time to check up on each other until recently, when the MP informed me that we lost our former Colleague.
All I can say is, since we know that one of her favourite advocacy subjects is women empowerment and the development of Hohoe, especially the resolution of the Hohoe water project and the completion of the road leading from Have to Hohoe, those of us here can only work with our Colleague.
We are making a commitment that in her memory, it will be very good to complete that project this year, so that, at least, she knows that her advocacy paid off. I am sure that the current Member, Hon Worlanyo Tsekpo, will continue in that stead to make sure that what she fought for, though she could not achieve it in her lifetime, will still be achieved.
Mr Speaker, many of us will be there to pay our former Colleague the last respect and to make sure that what she fought for, we complete. Mr Speaker, with these a few words, I add my voice to pay a tribute to our former Colleague, and may her soul rest in perfect peace.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Comfort Doyoe Cudjoe
Ada
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to add my voice to the Statement made by our Colleague from Hohoe in commemoration of our Sister, Bernice Heloo.
Mr Speaker, we came together in 2013. We were in this Chamber together, and as a woman myself, we worked hand in hand when it came to women’s empowerment. She was a very hardworking lady. She was here in the Sixth and Seventh Parliaments. She told us she wanted to go and continue outside of Parliament to make sure that she goes to the villages and other communities to empower girls and women. She has fought hard for women in Ghana, and as the Women’s Caucus Leader, I want to give our condolences to the family and to Hohoe as a whole.
Mr Speaker, anytime one enters this Chamber, all one needs to do is to leave a legacy, so that any time they are not here, their good work will be remembered, and something good will be said about them. She worked here and was always in the Chamber contributing; she was very hardworking. That is what I can remember about her. Although she was a Deputy Minister, she was always in the Chamber championing the cause of women.
Mr Speaker, we have lost a good person. We have lost a woman that we should not have lost at this time, but I know we have capable women like her in the Chamber who will emulate her style and work for women in Ghana.
Mr Speaker, we extend our condolences to the whole family once again, and I urge Colleagues to take good care of their health. Anytime the year begins, they should go and do their full blood count and monitor their system to know what to do and what not to do at a particular time.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity once again. We do not need to eat anything because if one does not monitor their system and does not know they have high blood pressure; they will be eating what they are not supposed to eat. So, one has to change the oil because we change the oil for our cars. So, once we change the oil for our cars, we should change the oil for ourselves.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
AskParly