Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has described the passing away of 95-year-old Nelson Mandela as "expected but shocking".

"He is a real hero, a rare human, servant leader and a man who will not be forgotten easily", John Kufuor said on Joy FM's Super Morning Show on Friday.

South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela died last Thursday. Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.

Tributes from all over the world have been pouring in for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and one of the world's most revered statesmen.

President John Kufuor says he had the privilege of meeting the peace and reconciliation icon three times and noticed his humble demeanour and how "he would crack a joke, smile and you would see a twinkle in his eyes".

For a man who already has a statue erected in the UK, Kufuor believes physical monuments will not be enough to honour the memory of the anti-apartheid hero.

"I don't know if statues will honour him enough", he said, adding that literary works and research into his life by political scientists will help honour the man much better.

The statue of Nelson Mandela is a 9 feet (2.7 m) bronze sculpture in Parliament Square, London.

His life should be a lesson to leaders in Ghana and in Africa that "when you get the chance to be a leader you should be there for the people."

"Selfish, self-centered ,tribal divisive tendencies that he obviously eschewed should be taken away from our lives", the ex-president said.

His glorious life has been "ingrained into the psychology of people", he concluded.