The Youngest Executive Secretary General of NCOGA

Part Three of our profiling series. We are bringing our prominent brothers and sisters who are making a difference in our community in the diaspora but are not getting the recognition they deserve. Mr. CNN of ghana?s home page is proud to introduce to the world, the youngest Executive Secretary General of NCOGA; Alhaji Mohammed Mardah. Read the story;

The records just keep breaking and the barriers keep coming down at the National Council of Ghanaian Associations. Gone are the days when the Council was perceived to be elitist. Today, the Council has undergone a transformation, and elected the youngest Executive Secretary General.

Alhaji Mohammed Mardah served as the Deputy Executive Secretary General for the last four years, and there was no where to move but up. It was either that, or getting out of the Council, thankfully, he chose the former in order to continue to serve the community.

Alhaji Mohammed Mardah became a member of Yankasa Association in early 1996. The President at the time, Alhaji Idrissu Babar soon recognized his talents, and appointed him as a Deputy Public Relations Officer. With a strong urging from all the leaders of Yankasa at the time, he was elected unopposed as the General Secretary, a position he held until his election as the Deputy Executive Secretary General of the Council.

Mardah has been a bright star in the Council. He was instrumental in getting the Ghanaian Association of Westchester accepted into the Council. He served as Acting Deputy Executive Secretary General under Mr. Mawuli Agbenu. In that capacity, he exhibited qualities of a leader which was recognized by his colleagues on the Council. Coupled with his desire to be the first Yankasa member and the youngest representative to become Executive Secretary General, he contested the position and was elected unopposed.

Born in Accra, Mardah (Kotoka), as those closest to him affectionately call him, attended Accra Academy, and did his National Service at the office of the Comptroller and Accountant General, before migrating to the United States.

He continued his education here and earned his undergraduate degree from Lehman College in the Bronx, he is currently enrolled in the Public Administration graduate program at Baruch College.

?The idea of public service, is something innate?, Alhaji Mardah told this writer. It takes a special person to commit to helping his or her community, often taking great abuse and insults. It is a thankless job, and yet we commit ourselves. There is only one reason, and that is we are born with it. Helping people is part of our nature, and however we do it makes no difference.

Among Alhaji Mardah?s objectives are, as he put it ?is to get the youth to get excited about organizations again. I hope that by seeing a young face in the limelight that they can identify with would prompt them to join organizations, and try to make a difference in their part of the motherland.? Additionally, he intends to revitalize the Council by linking the Council with City Hall and as a source of information for Ghanaians in the tri-state area.

Alhaji Mohammed Mardah and his wife live in the Bronx. They have two children