The 2020 NDC Presidential candidate personally graced the funeral of the deceased to console the bereaved family.
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John Mahama commiserates with the Hamah family
Former President John Dramani Mahama has commiserated with the Hamah family, following the passing of John Alex Hamah.
John Mahama commiserates with the Hamah family
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The late Alex Hamah, who is the father of Victoria Hamah, passed away in June at the Tema General Hospital following a short illness.
His funeral rite was held last Saturday, August 21, 2021, at the Dolphins Events Centre in Tema Community 6.
He was born at Agona Abodom in the Central Region and rose to become a prominent Labour Leader and Public/Industrial Relations Consultant.
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He had his early education at the Abodom United School, the Komenda State School Agona Swedru Methodist School and later at the Agona State College.
He also took advanced correspondence courses from Bennett College, Sheffield and Worsley Hall, Oxford, England.
Alex Hamah was a graduate of the Ashley Secretarial College, Accra, Ghana; The Agricultural College, Bunso; The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions {ICFTU} Labour College, Makelere University Campus, Kampala, Uganda and The International Trade Union Institute, Patrice Lumumba University Campus, Moscow, Russia.
He started his professional career as a teacher at the Apam Roman Catholic School before becoming a Field Assistant Agronomist in the Cocoa Agronomy Division of the Gold Coast Department of Agriculture in the mid-1950s.
His résumé was rich with experience from diverse backgrounds, having served as Assistant Accra Regional Secretary of the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP).
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A veteran journalist and former founder and Editor-in Chief of the ‘Comet” newspaper, Alex Hamah also served as Rector of the Ghana Labour College.
John Mahama speaks at the funeral rite of the late John Alex Hamah
Pulse Ghana
Mahama eulogised the late Alex Hamah as a dutiful person and recounted how he's known him since his childhood due to the relationship his (Mahama's) father enjoyed with the deceased.
“I’ve known him for quite a while from when I was a child. And I’m also here because of Victoria Hamah and her siblings,” Mahama said.
“Victoria is a member of our party and she has remained a committed member. Despite all the obstacles she has faced, she still remains strong and committed.
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“Accept the condolences of the entire NDC family on the passing of your father and may God bless you.”
The late John Alex Hamah
Pulse Ghana
Read a brief biography of the late Ales Hamah below:
John Alex Hamah is a story of unimaginable twists and turns; hills and valleys: a journey through the epic moments of Ghana’s political history of a man dedicated to the finest public causes from the dawn to the dusk of his life.
John Alex Hamah, was a popular Ghanaian Labour Leader and Public/Industrial Relations Consultant was born on the 12th of January, 1937, at Agona Abodom in the Central Region of Ghana. He had his early education at the Abodom United School, the Komenda State School Agona Swedru Methodist School and later at the Agona State College. He also took advanced correspondence courses from Bennett College, Sheffield and Worsley Hall, Oxford, England.
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Alex Hamah was a graduate of the Ashley Secretarial College, Accra, Ghana; The Agricultural College, Bunso; The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions {ICFTU} Labour College, Makelere University Campus, Kampala, Uganda and The International Trade Union Institute, Patrice Lumumba University Campus, Moscow, Russia.
His first job was as a pupil teacher at the Apam Roman Catholic School.
He was a Field Assistant Agronomist in the Cocoa Agronomy Division of the Gold Coast Department of Agriculture in the mid-1950s, and resigned to become a full-time trade unionist.
He was at different periods , [1] Senior Industrial Relations Officer of the Industrial Commercial and Allied Workers Union (ICU) of the Ghana Trades Union Congress [GTUC]; [2] Secretary/Treasurer of the Accra and Eastern Regional Council of Labour; [3] Accra Regional Secretary of the GTUC; [4] General Secretary of the Young Workers’ Club; [5] Assistant Accra Regional Secretary of the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP), when the GTUC was an integral part of the CPP; [6] 1st Secretary General of the reconstituted Ghana National Youth Council; [7] Head of the Education and Training Department of the (G.T.U.C) and [8] the Rector of the Ghana Labour College.
Alex Hamah was Ghana Young Workers’ Delegate to the 5th World Congress of the Assembly of Youth [WAY], held at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra [1960]
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In 1960, Alex HAMAH was seconded from the GTUC to the Young Pioneer Movement and was appointed its first Education Officer. He was the Secretary of the first official Ghana Youth Delegation which study-toured China, Russia, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, etc.… in 1960, to study the pattern of monolithic communist youth movement. On return of the delegation, Alex Hamah expressed reservation about the suitability of some aspects of the communist youth movement structure for Ghana. He clashed with the Pioneer Authorities and reverted to the GTUC.
Thereafter, he was awarded scholarship by the World Federation of Trades Unions (WFTU) to study in Russia. Although a well-known Nkrumah supporter, Alex Hamah, was against the one-party system in Ghana and also the integration of the GTUC INTO THE CPP. So, after graduation he left Russia and went into voluntary exile and formed the Ghana Democratic Party- in-Exile. He lived mainly in London and Lagos, Nigeria.
While in Nigeria, the Federal Taxi Drivers’ Union of Nigeria appointed him the Public and Industrial Relations Adviser of the Union and Editor-in –Chief of the “TAXI” a monthly magazine which catered for the Transport, Oil and Tourism Industries.
On his return from Nigeria in 1966, the GTUC appointed him Head of Education and Training Department of the GTUC. He established the Ghana Labour College during his tenure and became its first rector. He was GTUC Representative on the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Labour Experts’ Study Group on African Labour. University of Dakar, Senegal (1966).
In 1967, JAH as John Alex Hamah was popularly called became the first Ghanaian to be exempted by the Justice Apaloo Public Disqualification Committee.
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A Veteran journalist, Alex Hamah founded and became the Editor-in Chief of the ‘Comet” newspaper. For many years he was a leading columnist and commentator on African and international political affairs in some foreign newspapers and radio stations under the pseudonym Alan Tott.
With the lifting of the ban on political activities in 969, Alex Hamah founded the Ghana Democratic Party (GDP), and was elected leader. When the various opposition parties merged into the United Nationalist Party (UNP) (Abaabase), he became one of the two deputy leaders of the UNP, with the other deputy being Dr John Bilson, with Joe Appiah as leader. He contested Agona West Parliamentary seat during the 1969 general elections but lost narrowly to the candidate of Dr. K. A. Busia’s Progress Party (PP).
After serving five years in jail, Alex Hamah was released from prison on 7th of December 1978, six months after General Akuffo toppled the government of General Acheampong in 1978. In September, 1979, he was granted free, absolute and unconditional pardon by the then ruling Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Chairman JJ Rawlings.
Ironically, in February 1983, Alex Hamah was arrested with seven army officers on suspicion of subversion against the PNDC military regime led by Chairman Rawlings. After tough detention for two weeks, the PNDC released him because there was no truth in the allegation.
Alex Hamah has travelled extensively on study tours in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
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In 1987, Chief M. K. O Abiola, the popular Nigerian politician, philanthropist, business tycoon and publisher of the ‘African Concord’ and Patron of the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation appointed Alex Hamah as his Public Relations Consultant in Ghana.
In 1992, Alex Hamah was elected Secretary-General of the African Democratic League at its inaugural meeting in Lagos, Nigeria. The ADL is an organisation of ex-political prisoners, Trade Unionists and democracy activists in Africa, concerned with acceleration of the democratic process in Africa. The president of the ADL was Prof. Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate.
In January 2002, Alex Hamah appeared before the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), to give testimony about the violation of his fundamental human rights by past military regimes.
In the year 2005 and 2016, Alex Hamah was a recipient of a prestigious GTUC award for his meritorious services towards the building of a free, strong and democratic trades union movement in Ghana.
Until his transition, John Alex Hamah was the National Secretary of the Trade Union Veterans’ Association of Ghana and was a CPA in work place Mediation.
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Politically, John Alex Hamah had and maintained cordial relationships across political divide. He has close working association some political heavyweights of Ghana politics including the late Kojo Botsio of the C.P.P.; the late K.N. Arkaah of the Nkrumahist N.C.P and former Vice- President of Ghana; the late Victor Owusu, leader of Popular Front Party; the late Dr. K. A. Busia, former Prime Minister of Ghana; the the late Joe Appiah, the leader of the United Nationalist Party (Abaabase); the late Modesto Apaloo, the veteran politician; the late K. A. Gbademah, leader of the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL); the late Dr. John Bilson, leader of the Third Force Party and Deputy Leader of the UNP; Dr. Obed Asamoah, leader of the Democratic Freedom Party; Alhaji Imoru Aryana, the veteran politician; Rt. Hon. Peter Ala Adjetey, former Speaker of Parliament, Nii Ato Quarshie of the UNP ' Abaabase' fame; Ambassador John K. Tettehgah, the veteran Pan-African African Labour Leader; H. E. J. A. Kufour, Totobi Kwakye, the Ahwoi brothers and others.
A renowned Public and Industrial Relations Consultant with wide international contacts, John Alex Hamah was the Managing Director of Octopus Agency, a Public and Industrial Relations Consultancy. He was an active participant and representative of some European oil and energy companies at 2000 African Oil and Gas Trade Finance Conference.
John Alex Hamah was a Theological Scientist. And he had a number of essays on politics, literature and culture to his credit. He has authored four books: ‘Farewell Africa—Life and Death of Nkrumah’; ‘Dynamics of African Tyranny—the Theory of the One-Party State’; ‘Instruments of Destiny—A journey through Ghanaian Politics’ and ‘Too Young to Die—My Experience in Nsawam Condemned Cell’.
John Alex Hamah was blessed with seven children. He married Hellen Smith, a young civil servant by customary law; they had two daughters, Monica and Jennifer, both deceased, Monica in her tender years. Jennifer passed on last year in the United States.
Unfortunately, the marriage was short lived and he would later on meet and marry Ms. Yetunde Olajumoke Alex -Hamah (Nee Sotuminu) who worked as an Assistant Chief Radiographer at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), with whom he bore a son and named him Hannibal Kwesi Nyamekye Olusheyi Alex-Hamah. Unfortunately, Ms. Yetunde Olajumoke Alex -Hamah passed on to glory.
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John Alex Hamah met his last wife Gifty Sappor, a young beautiful maiden who worked as an account officer at the now defunct Ambassador Hotel. The union was blessed with four children, John Sathya Hamah, Victoria Lakshmi Hamah, Lord Koranteng Hamah and Paul Rama Hamah.
John Alex Hamah, the workers agitator, social democrat, writer, student of politics and history answered the eternal call on the morning of June 11th 2021, closing the curtains in one of the most arresting drama on the Ghanaian political stage and one of its most celebrated actors, who now belongs to the ages.
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