The New Patriotic Party (NPP's) 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, has hailed the contributions of the people from Ghana’s three northern regions to the growth of the party.

Nana Akufo-Addo said this when he led a team of officials of the party to a memorial ceremony for the late Tolon Naa, Alhaji Yakubu, who died in the late '80s.

Nana Akufo-Addo said the celebration of Alhaji Yakubu Tali and 60 years of the formation of the NPP is a "happy coincidence" because the occasion is taking place on the eve of the NPP national delegates’ conference.

He said there is the need to commemorate the life of this honourable man, whose lives continue to inspire people.

"Naa Yakubu Tali was a good footballer and was such brilliant man", he recalled. 

He said the policy of the then colonial government was to ensure that no student from the Northern territories attended Achimota no matter how brilliant he was, but Yakubu Tali defied that convention and attended the Achimota College.

He described him as a consummate politician, who won several Parliamentary elections and was also instrumental in the formation of the Northern Peoples Party together with J.A. Braimah and S.D. Dombo.

Akufo-Addo also saw Yakubu Tali as an "eloquent debator" and "a golden voice of the North". He acknowledged that as a young man, he listened to that memorable, unforgettable voice of Tali and was hugely impressed.

He was a "politician, diplomat and statesman," an "educated and cultivated man, an admired teacher", Nana Addo stressed.

He said the late Yakubu Tali represented the best element of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition and will be remembered by all.