By George Antwi
The Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency, lawyer Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu, will be awarded a lifetime achievement recognition by the Jacobs-Abbey Global Institute of Leadership Studies in the USA.
Sosu’s recognition comes with the conferment of the Presidential Service Award in the USA for his active participation in championing human rights in Ghana and some states in the USA.
In 2003, the US President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation founded the President’s Volunteer Service Award to recognize the important role of volunteers in America’s strength and national identity.
The award is in recognition of Sosu’s voluntary service in Ghana and across several states in the USA for his human rights activism. In January 2024, Sosu was a visiting lecturer at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.
The MP for Madina Constituency lectured on advancing a free and just society, using his life as a lawyer, legislator, and activist as an example. He advocated for the abolition of the death penalty in the US, using the Ghana model of abolition of the death penalty through statutory amendments.
In April 2024, Sosu was a visiting lecturer at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Atlanta, Georgia, where he taught students how to translate Christian ministry into social justice advocacy. Hon. Sosu has been a delegate to the Youth for Human Rights Africa at the UN in New York, featured on Fox 13 TV in Tennessee, and spoken at Durant High School and Oakdale School, both in the State of Oklahoma.
Hon. Sosu has, in the past ten years, impacted several children in the USA with his life story of rising from a street child, supported by the Churches of Christ, mostly from the USA, who reached out to him through the Village of Hope in Ghana. He rose from the streets to become a lawyer, human rights activist, and now a legislator leading major legislative changes in Ghana, including the abolition of the death penalty and the criminalization of witchcraft accusations.
Sosu’s prestigious honour is bestowed by the President of the United States for outstanding volunteer service in communities throughout the country. The award honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action. The Award will be given to lawyer Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu on November 9, 2024, during the Annual Awards Gala by the Jacobs-Abbey Global Institute of Leadership Studies in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
