Kufuor, Akufo-Addo, Bawumia Mourn With New-Juabenman
Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his Vice-President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia joined thousands of mourners at the Yiadon-Hewedie Palace in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital to mourn with the New Juaben Traditional Council for the final funeral rites and burial of the late Omanhene of New Juaben, Daasebre Oti Boateng and the late queen mother, Nana Yaa Daani II.
President Akufo-Addo led by some of his appointees, later pay a courtesy call on the Omanhene of Old Juaben Nana Otuo Siriboe II who is the brother of the late Daasebre Oti Boateng, who passed away at the age of 83 after a brief illness.
As part of the security measures to ensure the safety of the mourners, the Eastern Regional Police Command deployed about 400 police personnel for the final funeral rites which began on Friday, May 13, and are expeted to end on May 17, 2022.
Some major roads in Koforidua have since been blocked from creating vehicular traffic in parts of the town.
The late Emeritus Professor Emmanuel Oti Boateng was the paramount chief of New Juaben, a settlement of refugees from war in Asanteman, established in the Eastern Region in 1875.
He succeeded his blood brother Nana Kwaku Boateng II as the paramount chief of New Juaben in 1992, taking the stool name Daasebre.
Daasebre who belonged to the Yiadom-Hwedie royal lineage of Juaben, Asante Juaben and New Juaben was the Chancellor of All Nations University in Koforidua and a recipient of many national and international awards.
He earned his Division One school leaver’s certificate at Konongo Odumase Secondary School before moving on to Prempeh College in Kumasi for the sixth form.
He studied economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, and obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc Hons) in 1966.
He then received a scholarship from Legon to study for a Master’s degree in statistics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
After completing these studies, he returned to Ghana in 1969.
Daasebre was unrelenting in his quest for knowledge and in 1976 he won a Ford Foundation scholarship to pursue a doctorate, again in statistics, at the University of Liverpool in England.
He also earned a Master of Business Administration degree in taxation from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, in 1983.
He held a second Ph.D., in accounting and finance, from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, and in 2006 he obtained a third Master’s degree – an MSc in finance, from Boston College, Massachusetts.
Achievement and recognition
As Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, he institutionalized the first post-independence traditional festival in the country – the Akwantukese, or “Great Migration” – which brought to the fore a forgotten but important event in the history of the Asantes in Ghana.
He was appointed senior official as the Ghana Government Statistician, a position he held for 18 years, between 1982 and 2000. In the course of serving as Government Statistician, he became the first African chairman of the United Nations Statistical Commission in 1987.
At the 15th Session of the International Conference of Labor Statisticians, held in Geneva, he became the first African chairman of that body, too.
He also served as a United Nations Commissioner on the International Civil Service Commission from 2003 to 2018.
Daasebre published over 95 technical works, in the areas of governance, economics, population and health, statistics, disaster management, and policy issues.
He was also the author of five books – Akwantukese Festival 2017, Barack Obama, Africa’s Gift to the World, and his trilogy Development in Unity, which was launched in Accra in 2019.
Among honors abroad, he was decorated with an insignia of the International Civil Service Commission at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
At home, he was honored as a founding father for the 2019 masonic year by the Grand Lodge of Ghana.
He left behind 12 children.