This will be followed by a burial service at the same venue Friday.

Tributes

A former Presidential Staffer in charge of Communications at the former Vice-President’s Office, Mr Kweku Tsen, had this to say about him: “He had a pragmatic way of handling claims and rivalries of work mates and suggestions of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)”.

An astute academician, Mr Tsen said, the late former Vice-President had a razor-sharp mind capable of understanding the psychology of the contrasting characters he interacted with on a daily basis.

The former Vice-President was a brick and mortar person who weighed thoroughly the pros and cons of an issue before drawing his own conclusion. He was also an indefatigable worker who was dedicated to his work and gave others the credit that was due them,” he added.

Not all journalists who cover the Presidency develop intimate relationships with the men and women who govern the country, especially the Number Two man of the land.

But Mr Amissah-Arthur was said to be so easy to approach that he often had sit-down chats with the Press Corps covering him at least twice in a month and most often those chats were very casual.

The Daily Graphic’s Sebastian Syme, who covered the Office of the Vice- President during the Mahama administration, had interesting memories of the Second Gentleman.

“The former Vice-President was a gentleman par excellence and his humility was phenomenal. I had always described him as Atta Mills reincarnated because he possessed the qualities of the late former President, who was loved by all, including his political opponents.

“Covering him as my beat for the Daily Graphic from November 2013 to December 2016, I realised that Mr Amissah-Arthur was always accessible and gave his press corps a listening ear; perhaps what his boss the former President, John Mahama, failed to do.

“I had the rare opportunity to travel within and outside of the country with him and each time we travelled by air Mr Amissah-Arthur would leave his seat and join each member of the press corps on his or her seat just for an interaction before we got to our destination. He was, indeed, a great man and decent politician,” Mr Syme recalled.

That’s not all. Mr Komla Klutse, who was also assigned to the former Vice-President’s Office by TV3, also shared his memory of him.

“He was practical, calm and Amissah-Arthur goes home tomorrow sensitive to the feelings of people. A man who anticipates the challenges of people even before they spoke to him.

He was a man who commanded a great deal of respect, but above all, he was humble and affable,” he said of the late former Vice-President