Congrats To All Ghanaians

The casket containing the remains of Prof John Atta Mills

All shall pass except God and his authority. And so it was yesterday when the late President John Evans Atta Mills added to the countless statistics of the departed.

It had been three days of solemn rites and by the time the curtains were drawn down over the activities, Ghanaians could deservedly pat each other on the back for contributing towards not only a befitting interment but a moving one devoid of party colours.

The feat was achieved by all of us citizens of Ghana because as President, the late Prof Mills was a father of the nation and deserved what went into the rites and burial.

We are particularly joyous about how, in spite of the antics and smelly utterances of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia, who sought to politicize the event, the leadership of the largest opposition party ignored the inappropriate and uncivil remarks and fully participated in the show of respect to the fallen compatriot.

Nana Akufo Addo, the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the 2012 polls, suspended his campaign tour upon hearing the death of the former president as a mark of respect and ordered his party to do same. Asiedu Nketia sought to pour cold water over the gesture, to no avail anyway, as unfolding events showed.

Ghanaians, irrespective of their ethnic and religious groupings, do not rejoice when others die, even their political opponents. For the man to pass those snide remarks, speaks more about his uncivil composition. Good they passed off like hot air with no effect.

We are equally elated that the death of the former president has compelled some young persons who suddenly found themselves holding public office and overwhelmed by hubris to become philosophical about life.

Youthful and largely reckless Samuel Ablakwa Okudzeto, Deputy Information Minister, remarked that the death of the man who offered him an opportunity to serve his motherland, his lack of experience notwithstanding, shows how transient life is.

Exactly so Mr. Okudzeto, we tell the young minister. Life is a stage and all men, actors. We come to the world as tender babies unable to do anything for ourselves- learn to crawl, walk and become adults, get very old if we are lucky and then requiring support as we did when we were babies.

That is life and so to get inordinately excited about positions we hold and forgetting about the transience of life is a very serious folly.

It is sad that being the nature of man, we soon forget about the lessons taught us by the continuous demise of others, their status in life notwithstanding.