May Former Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur's Soul Rest In Peace - He Was A Fine Gentleman

It is sad to hear that Ghana's former vice president during the Mahama era has passed away. He was definitely a fine gentleman. Indeed, those who knew him personally, say that former Vice  President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur - who apparently collapsed whiles working out at the Ghana Air Force's gym at Cantonments yesterday, according to media reports  -  was an honest, hard-working and very humble gentleman.

Somehow, the impression one got when he was in office as vice president, was that he felt uncomfortable about some of the things that the National Democratic Congress' (NDC)  greediest and most unprincipled power brokers got up to,  especially when it came to padding public procurement contracts.

One feels particularly for his loving and loyal wife  - whose strength of character enabled her to  be a source of comfort and support for him  in the rough and tumble of party politics. And, although difficult, one hopes that his surviving family will bear their sad loss stoically - just as he was stoic in his difficult position in a regime in which it was an open secret that powerful rent-seekers (who ended up irreparably ruining their party's brand with the unfathomable greed that drove them), cared little for the ethical ethos that underpinned all that Mr. Amissah-Arthur did,  throughout his distinguished life serving Ghana as a public servant with a stellar record.

In a sense, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur was the personification of middle-class Ghana's reluctance to be confrontational, when faced with the ruthless and selfish nation-wreckers who participate in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana. Still, despite that, he went ahead and courageously agreed to serve his country as vice president, at a particularly difficult moment, when the nation entered unchattered waters and was grappling with the ramifications of the death of a sitting president, President John Atta Mills. It was proof positive that public service was an act of patriotism for him - more so when his shyness sometimes  made it a nightmare serving as vice president. May his sould rest in peace.