He died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at 12.12am today.

According to his eldest son, Mohd Anuar, the former federal minister had served Malaysia’s first three prime ministers.

He said Ghani was believed to have died due to complications caused by Covid-19.

“He had also been struggling with infections in the lung for the last 17 years,” he said when contacted.

He said his father would be buried in their hometown in Kampung Silou, Ranau, located at the foothills of Mount Kinabalu.

Anuar said Ghani would be fondly remembered for his many contributions to his state and country but, for him, it was his father’s achievement in building many roads in Sabah when he was the then works and utilities federal minister.

“He also introduced cabbage planting and temperate crops in Kundasang (in Ranau), which has become popular there now,” he said.

Ghani held various ministerial positions in the federal Cabinet over a period of 10 years from 1968, serving first under prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, then Abdul Razak Hussein and Hussein Onn.

Deputy home minister and Ranau MP Jonathan Yasin said Ghani’s death was a great loss for the Ranau people, Sabah and the nation.

He was instrumental alongside another favourite son of Sabah, the late Fuad Stephens, a former chief minister, in the formation of the Malaysian federation.

“He travelled far with Fuad into the interior in Ranau, Kundasang, Tambunan, Keningau and then to Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu), Kudat, Sandakan and Kinabatangan to help the Cobbold Commission,” he said on his social media page.

This commission was entrusted with the task of finding out if the people of Sabah and Sarawak wanted to be part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

Both men helped explain about the benefits to Sabahans so that they would support the formation of Malaysia, he added.

“His contributions towards the development of Ranau as well as Sabah and Malaysia will always be remembered and cherished.”

Jonathan said Ghani also had an illustrious political career, including being the former assemblyman for Ranau when it was still a state constituency, from 1963 to 1970, and the Kinabalu (now Ranau) MP from 1970 to 1978.