A former National Security Advisor and founding member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd), has died.

He passed away in the early hours of Saturday, 20 November 2021.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dayi, Mr Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, confirmed the news via a tweet thus: "News is that Ghana’s greatest intelligence & counter-intelligence mind-ever, Capt. (Rtd.) Kojo Tsikata, has just passed away".

"The world is a stage indeed... Fare thee well, uncle...", the opposition lawmaker added.

Captain Tsikata, in 1982, under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), was the head of foreign affairs.

He is thought to be one of the brains behind the Rawlings revolution.

Captain Tsikata was sent to the Congo with Major General Ankrah, as part of a Ghanaian military contingent with orders from Kwame Nkrumah to protect Pan-Africanist and anti-neocolonialist Patrice Lumumba, who was the Prime Minister of that country at the time.

He later visited Conakry, Guinea, to visit Nkrumah.

He was arrested, detained, and put on death row as a suspect of an assassination plot against Nkrumah on his arrival.

Samora Machel, a freedom fighter, intervened and he was pardoned. Samora travelled with him to Mozambique. He later arrived in Angola in 1964 to join MPLA fighters and internationalist fighters from Cuba.

He was appointed in 1982 under the Jerry Rawlings administration.

He had been in charge of national security since 1982 and later joined the Rawlings administration on 21 January 1995.

He was a member of the council of state and a captain of the Ghana Army.

In 1995, he was asked to join a negotiating team with Ibn Chambas who was the then-Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, and Brigadier General Agyemfra, accompanied by Harry Mouzillas from the Ghana News Agency, as a journalist, to cover the events.

They travelled to join Mr James Victor Gbeho, the then-Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and a Resident of Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings and Mr Ate Allotey, a diplomat.

He rejected a national award to be conferred on him in the category of the order of Volta companion under President Kufuor.

He was listed as one of the six government officials under the NDC regime to receive the award.

He was appointed by Gaddafi to a senior advisory position in charge of the Al Mathaba central committee, a support centre for the liberation movement and anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist organisations.