By Kofi Thompson

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 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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Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com