I CRIED

On that gloomy Tuesday, I had just finished a great meeting with the MD of Energy Bank at Ridge-Accra and was feeling quite good about myself.  While i was heading for the parking lot, i received a message from a colleague on my blackberry that read "Uncle Atta is dead!" Uncle Atta was how he was affectionately called , and that was how I was informed about the sudden death of Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills, the then president of Ghana an flag-bearer of the NDC party. 

Unbelievable-Impossible-Shocking- Heart-wrenching...all these were  mixed feelings and thoughts that went through my mind within a matter of seconds. It was as a dream. Immediately, i turned on the radio in my car hoping that this message would be one of those unfair pranks the opposition party and ill-wishers had pulled out on this noble man in the past, but Man, I was wrong.

Tears run down my face uncontrollably. I felt closer to him all of a sudden; even-though i had neither knew him personally or knew anyone who did. Almost as though I had lost a covering, a shepherd, a Father. When i heard the genre of music being played as its usually done in the Ghanaian culture, my heart sunk! I immediately picked up my phones to call my parents, but neither one of them worked at that moment, then i dialed my boyfriend's number and that couldn't go through either. I begun to breath deeper and harder; it felt as though i was choking on my own breaths. I needed someone special, one that I could trust to talk to yet i didn't really understood why it was so important to call them at that time. Then, i closed my eyes and begun to pray while still sitting in my car; then it dawned on me that there was no air around me because I hadn't turned the air condition on; hence, the difficulty in breathing.

Honestly, i felt so distraught by the unpleasant  news that I could only hear myself saying "NO!! NO!! NO!! NO!!
For the next few weeks the entire nation was thrown into a state of grief. Several questions were raised as the various media were replete with the lifetime achievements of the man as well as questions regarding the manner in which his frail health was handled leading to his death. 

In fact, Ghanaians are indeed respectful of the dead; and this general attitude may be viewed as hypocritical in most cases. Personally, i was thankful to God that the divided nature of our political views which hitherto almost threatened our national peace, had been smothered into profound unity at the death of this man. Many people who used to speak against him, taunt his ill-health and publicly disagreed with his administration, were all of a sudden showing him love. How ironic?

If Prof was "a fine gentleman" indeed, why didn't we all say so genuinely while he was with us? instead of waiting until his demise before blurting out all forms of "sugar-coated" words about what a great man he was and how much his life impacted the nation he so dearly loved.

Indeed Ghanaians behave in a certain way when its funeral time! the most shocking of them to me were those people who on an ordinary day couldn't afford 3 decent meals for their families or pay their children's school fees, yet had the effrontery to "invest" in the prescribed funeral cloths, alcoholic drinks, music bands, tents and chairs in the name of "ye di awer3ho" ...WE ARE MOURNING.
Let us not deceive our selves, who or what exactly were some people mourning about?

I believe in showing genuine LOVE and RESPECT for people in authority (the Bible calls them Kings and Priests), irrespective of our political affiliations let us not disrespect, taunt and despise the man (or somebody else for that matter) and then wait until his death to rain eulogies of him and condolences to his people. That is outright cruelty!