CPP, former Prez Mahama mourn K.B. Asante

The National Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Professor Edmund Delle, has eulogised the late retired Ghanaian diplomat, K B Asante, saying he was “fearless and apolitical.”

“I wish he leaves us the secret of his life because as a doctor I just cannot explain,” Prof. Delle stated on Morning Starr and added that “those of us who are younger than he was didn’t have the energy that this man had.”

“Ghanaians have lost a great man. Ghanaians have lost somebody who always thought about Ghana. He loved Ghana. He loved Ghanaians and he was fearless. He was really a statesman. He did not see himself belonging to any partisan political grouping,” he added.

K.B. Asante died at dawn yesterday at his residence in Accra, according to family sources. He was 93 years old.

He was the Secretary to Ghana’s First President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.

K.B. Asante also served under most heads of state in Ghana, starting from Nkrumah, and also served as the Principal Secretary at the African Affairs Secretariat from 1960 to 1966.

Fountain of wisdom’

Former President John Dramani Mahama has said he is saddened by the demise of renowned Ghanaian diplomat, Kwaku Baprui Asante, popularly known as K.B. Asante.
K.B. Asante, who died at age 93, was described by John Mahama as “a foundation of wisdom from which we all drunk freely.”

The former President in a post on his Facebook wall consoled the Asante family, saying he received the sad news of the passing of ‘uncle’ K.B. Asante. a statesman, diplomat and civil servant extraordinaire, with shock.

‘’ His experience straddled our early pre and post-independence era. A fountain of wisdom from which we all drunk freely is shut. Condolences to his family, the Nkrumahist group, and indeed all Ghanaians,’’ the former President said.

Born on March 1, 1924, K.B. Asante was the Secretary to Ghana’s First President Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and served under a number of heads of state in Ghana.

He became Ghana’s Ambassador to Switzerland and the United Nations Offices in Geneva, and the UN establishment in Vienna, and also the Ambassador to Australia from 1967-72.

He also served as the Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Economic Community from 1976-1978.

Life in politics

K.B. Asante retired from the Civil Service in 1978, to form the Social Democratic Front to contest the 1979 election where his party won three parliamentary seats in that election.

He was the Secretary for Trade and Tourism in the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) administration in 1982, and later Secretary for Education and Culture from 1986 to 1990.

Education

K.B. Asante attended Achimota School where he later taught mathematics from 1945 to 1948, before proceeding to Durham University in Britain, where he obtained a BSc in Mathematics in 1952.

He also became a member of the Institute of Statisticians in 1953, before again returning to Achimota College, where he continued teaching mathematics from 1953 to 1955.