Former president John Dramani Mahama has attributed his political success to the pieces of advice he received from the late Bature Iddrisu.

Mr. Mahama disclosed that the deceased founder of the Al-Hajj newspaper helped him through tough times when he was a Deputy Minister of the NDC government which had transitioned from the PNDC.

He stated that “I used to meet him from time and time; he had words of
counsel for me until I became the Minister of Communications and we continued our relationship”.

“Today, we are here to mourn our late brother, Alhaji Bature. I have known him for a long time when I came into politics in 1996 as a young Member of Parliament. I was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications. It was then I met him for the first time and he was full of advice for me because it was a tough job coming as Deputy Minister at the time in a government that had just transitioned from the PNDC to the NDC,” John Mahama said.

The former President added that the late Bature Iddrisu ‘had a lot of ideas, full of argumentation and held very strong opinions’. He also eulogized the deceased Journalist for his philanthropic exploits in the Nima community.

Addressing the Muslim community at the 40-day Islamic prayers for the late Bature Iddrisu, John Mahama revealed plans to construct two boreholes at Nima and Maamobi respectively, to honour him.

Present at the solemn event were prominent personalities such as the National Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr. Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong and other MPs.



Alhaji Bature Iddrisu died on Friday, January 5, 2018, after being hospitalized at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital due to a sudden illness. He was the founder of the Al-Hajj newspaper, an outspoken political commentator on Adom TV’s morning show, Badwam, and a member of the National Democratic Congress.