The late President JJ Rawlings
After marooning the late former President Jerry John Rawlings and even referring to him as a barking dog which had been tamed, it is now surprising how the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) is scheming for political space to lead in rolling out the processes for the funeral.
This is in spite of the sour environment which was deliberately created by a cabal in the NDC for political purposes, in keeping the late former President away from having a say in the affairs of the party he founded.
Significantly, while these crooked elements were steeped in carrying out that agenda, the leadership of the NDC and the Executive under the John Dramani Mahama administration dithered on ensuring basic courtesies for the departed former President, including promptly emptying refuse cans at his residence.
Propaganda
It is common knowledge that the leadership of NDC visited former President Rawlings only when unavoidable political issues arose; or there was a June 4 celebration and similar events that attracted political gains to be celebrated for profit.
One of such was the recent funeral of the late Madam Agbotui, Jerry Rawlings’s mother, who was buried barely a month ago.
Though the Agbotui family took control of the funeral, as was to be expected, it was Jerry Rawlings persona and stature that hallowed the event and from which the NDC sought to benefit.
It also emerged that even in that purely family event, the NDC attempted to crowd out the bereaved family in terms of attendance and the space. The NDC certainly benefitted from it, and hoped that it would be the same story this time over the untimely death of the late founder of the party.
Reality
The NDC leadership and members however forget that the event from which they want to reap political benefit is larger than their party, and that it is the duty of the state to connect with the family to roll out every bit of the processes.
We believe that the meeting of the state machinery with the family, who had called on the President earlier to formally announce the departure of their beloved, was aimed at setting the tone and structures for the family to do what it has to do. As they would admit, the President also has an overarching role to play for the funeral to have a global, instead of localized and propaganda, appeal and colour.
Larger picture
Already, messages of condolence are pouring in, in response to the tragedy that has befallen the nation – with expectations that the country will soon be deluged in a sea of mourners from every part of the world, defying COVID-19 protocols to mourn with Ghana.
If Mahama, Asiedu Nketia and the NDC’s boisterous communicators believe that the right to preside over the funeral belongs to them, we just need to remind them that just as nobody fought with them over their control of the funeral of the late Professor Evans Atta Mills, nobody should similarly waste his time attempting to hijack the processes of giving Jerry John Rawlings a befitting send-off.
Propriety
As we have already pointed out, that right belongs to the state. As for the ongoing propaganda that the President and his men are preventing the NDC and its flagbearer from accessing and signing any book of condolences, we believe their complaint had been pre-mature and misguided.
This is a solemn occasion in Ghana and we need some sanity to reflect on the huge loss and the way forward – and not to generate rancor and bitterness.
This is because the boat of opportunity for relevance was missed long time ago in the infamous KAMA Conference event that prematurely elevated a political windbag to prominence.
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