Put An End To Negative Political Activism - Most Rev Asante
“Let the demise of the late President bring into consonance the opposite of political and religious tension that characterise our politics,” the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church, the Most Rev Prof Emmanuel K. Asante , told mourners in a sermon at the memorial service for the departed President.
Most Rev Prof Asante noted that it was time “we engage in politics of civility bearing in mind that even in politics we are in partnership with God for the development and governance of the country which is his creation.”
Politics of civility, he said were principles the late President stood for.
“As a lasting monument to immortalise the late President, let us be more united as a nation and draw closer to God and to the principles of peace especially in this election year,” the Presiding Bishop stated.
In a world like ours which seems to be characterised by the tension of different political persuasion, ideologies and ethnic groups, a world characterised with a keen sense of competition and political power to better the lives of our people but with the constant threat to peace as a result of our intemperate political discourse; may the demise of President Mills unite us with a bond of unity.”
He said the country would emerge from these trying moments victoriously and peacefully and assured all of God’s guidance, if Ghanaians remained faithful to God.
He observed that a case for celebration for all Ghanaians was that the late President knew the cardinal truth that eternal life did not consist of the abundance of ones riches, not in the possession of political and economic power but in one’s unapologetic commitment to God.
Preaching on the theme “The Futility of life without God,” he said “With all the earthly possessions, a human being is nothing without God. Life without God is hollow, ” he stressed.
Eulogising the late President Mills, Most Rev Asante observed that President Mills in his modesty served the nation selflessly and sacrificially with genuine intention to better the lot of Ghanaians and with the fear of God.
The late President Mills, he stated understood life even though he was a man of substance, power, knowledge and an accomplished academician and could easily be a monarch of all he surveyed, he considered life without God as futile and lived it humbly and modestly in total dependence upon his maker.
“The late President exhibited real life in the real world. He was authentic in his relationship with his peers, his subordinates and his God. His was not pretence of life. “
He believed in God and unquestionably committed his activities to Christ, a force behind his peaceful, humble and modest demeanour and indeed behind his genuine quest for the development of the country in order to make it a better place to live in,” the man of God said.
He said there was no doubt that at the centre of the late President’s peaceful demeanour stood a principle of love which all great religions of the world considered as supreme and unifying principle of life.
According to the Presiding Bishop, the late President believed that the eternal could not be separated from the temporal so sought to bring together power and service—an integration of the spiritual and intellectual, strength and humility believing that the heat could never be totally right if the head was totally wrong.
Thousands of Ghanaians turned up at the Independence Square to bid the late President farewell. Sixteen heads of states across Africa as well as the US Secretary of State Mrs Hilary Clinton. Beninoise President and African Union Chairman, Mr Yayi Boni and Mr Macky Sall of Senegal were also at the memorial service of their departed colleague.
It took the security services a lot of effort to meander the late President’s coffin through the streets around the Independence Square to be interred at the Asomdwe Park.
At the grave side, President John Dramani Mahama, former President J.J Rawlings, the widow, Dr Ernestina Naadu Mills; Kofi Sam Atta Mills, the late President’s son; ministers of state and a host of dignitaries watched with grief as his coffin was lowered into the grave.
Some sombre-faced officers of the security services tried but in vain to get hold of their emotions as the coffin of the departed President was lowered into the grave.
President Mills died on July 24, 2012 three days after his 68th birthday. For once, apart from football, the entire nation was united to mourn the man affectionately known to many Ghanaians as ‘Astrosphere” to wit, the King of Peace.
Leaders of political parties put aside their political affiliations and paid glowing tribute to President Mills who came to the political limelight in 1996 as former President J.J. Rawlings’ vice-President from January 1997 to January 2001.
Before then the late President had been the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and a lecturer at the University of Ghana and the Ghana Law School.
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