Annan's day is Over

Accra, Oct 6,GNA - On the expansive forecourt of Parliament, a coffin stood under a small tent as many mourners fixed their eyes and minds on the occupant, who once hosted occasions like this. From 1993 to 2001, Mr Justice Daniel Francis Kweipe Annan had ruled his world whose physical boundaries stretched from the back gate near the Osu Cemetery to the frontage of the area popularly known as the State House but in the minds of Ghanaians, his influence stretched as far as their imagination could take them.

The huge Chamber of Parliament, in which his soft baritone voice once echoed, stood at the background. He set the foundations of the Fourth Republican Parliament where the ordinary person had the opportunity to voice out his feelings through a chosen representative. At a time when Parliament only existed in the archives, he rallied the uninitiated to travel the road long abandoned. His sheer skills and intellect drove his body through this period where innocent and simple politicians dominated the House. New standing orders, a new Constitution and a new mindset were his compass as he captained the Legislative ship on an un-chartered ocean. He was a retired Judge, who was lured by a group of young and boisterous revolutionaries wading through the muddy waters of nationhood and politics.

His mind, so fertile and deep helped the then Leaders to descend from the heights of illusion to the broad fields of political reality. But the sin committed by an avowed democratic was soon to be forgotten when he led the intellectual discussion on the Country's return to multi-party democracy. His good deeds may live after him as his evil deeds are interred with his bones and body. They talk very little about his bad deeds and praise him a lot for good deeds. Even those who felt cheated by his rulings and pronouncements admired him.

The memory of a tall man adorned with a long cloak behind a procession to the Parliamentary Chamber would always stay within the four walls of Parliament. It would overshadow the voices of a restless Minority led by Mr J.H Mensah, who on the day of his funeral sat in a meditative mood, perhaps savouring the memories of a man he once argued with and shared the pleasantries of the democratic principle of freedom of speech. A long white hearse quietly turned to the corner. It rolled to the little tent where the body of the Former Speaker laid. It was hired to carry his corpse to the ancient Osu Cemetery where tombstones make up the architecture.

They called him a gentleman, a scholar, a friend, a father, a husband but like all mortals he went on the journey of no return.

A GNA colour by Samuel Osei-Frempong