Ghana Mourns Former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama

Author's note:

This piece was written on the day  former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama passed away. It is being posted today because I was unable to do so at the time - although it was posted on Vibeghana.com and Ghanaweb.com not too long after his death was officially announced.

Please read on:

One commiserates with the immediate and extended family members of former Vice President Aliu Mahama, whose untimely death was announced today.

One is pretty sure that the general consensus in Ghana,  will be that on balance, former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama was a good and decent  gentleman.

Naturally, the cynics amongst us would also say that he was a man who was hard done by his New Patriotic Party (NPP)  - which showed him disrespect by not allowing him to succeed President Kufuor as its presidential candidate for the December 2008 election.

Those selfsame cynics will  also insist that had he hailed from the southern part of Ghana,  and had his name been Barimah Osei Prempeh, for example,  Alhaji Aliu Mahama's party  would have  gone to great length  to ensure  that he was automatically chosen by his party, to lead it,  after President Kufuor's two-term tenure.

Whatever be the case, former Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama deserves the state funeral he is getting tomorrow. He did his best for Mother Ghana, as vice-president.

He was a simple man,  who despite his considerable  wealth, was  always humble and down to earth - and,  notably, was never infected by the unfathomable-greed-bug  that soiled the record of  so many  of his upper-echelon  party colleagues, during the NPP's tenure.

It is fit and proper that a state of mourning has been declared by President John Dramani Mahama, as Ghana  mourns  a decent politician who in his time  served  his country to the best of his abilities. May his soul rest in peace - and may the Almighty Allah grant him a place in paradise.

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