Accra, Oct 7, GNA – Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford
Bagbin, Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament has spoken through his grief over
the loss of young brother saying death has further given him a perspective on
how life is nothing but vanity.
He said the only thing man can do that death
cannot win over is love and admonished human beings to love one another.
‘I have seen the death of too many good
people, people that I lived and associated with, just gone forever. President
John Evans Atta Mills, Vice President Aliu Mahama, Mr J H Mensah, and just
recently Vice President Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, Mr Kofi Annan, Justice
VRACC Crabbe, and now my own brother.
Mr Bagbin said this at Sombo, his hometown in
the Nadowli district of the Upper West Region during the funeral proceedings of
his younger brother Luke Bazing Bagbin who died after a short illness.
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament said:
“When you remember that all these great people have gone ahead of you, then it
is a reminder that you will also go home one day.
“When you do, what memory will be left of you?
Only the love you showed towards your fellow man is what will keep you in the
hearts and minds of others.”
Mr Bagbin therefore called for love among all
people saying ‘it is important that people forgive one another.’
The funeral itself was an affair as the Second
Deputy of Parliament’s social standing attracted the crème de la crème of Ghana
at sombo.
Among them were; Parliamentarians and members
of parliamentary service staff, former members of state, members of the clergy
and leading members of the NDC including; Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, NDC Director
of Elections, Mr Bede Ziedeng, a former Minister of State, Mrs Jamilatu
Ibrahim, former Parliamentary candidate of Sissala East and Mr Stephen Ashitey
Adjei, alias Moshake, Tema East NDC Branch Executive member.
Explaining life as vanity, Mr Bagbin said it
was real and therefore put in motion his own advice for people to forgive one
another, while he took the lead to forgive all those that had wronged him.
“Because of politics, people who are young
enough to be my children have insulted me in our own party, but I have forgiven
all of them.”
He said ‘a few weeks before the death of
former Vice President Amissah Arthur, I had arranged a meeting with him. His
sudden death really jolted me, it was like a reminder that you can go at
anytime.
“Similarly the death of Mr Kofi Annan shook me
up because I had just asked him to be a member of the board of trustees of my
‘Thank a Teacher Foundation’ that I had set up and he had agreed to be on.’
He commended all those who made time to
commiserate with him during the difficult time.
GNA