President renders apology to Mrs Theodosia Okoh
President John Dramani Mahama has described the renaming of the National Hockey Pitch after the late President John Evan Atta Mills as a “sad mistake” and apologised to Mrs Theodosia Okoh for the act.
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“I wish as President to express our regret as a nation to our grandmother, Mrs Theodosia Okoh, for any emotional trauma she might have suffered as a result of the mistake of renaming of the National Hockey Pitch,” he stated.
The President was addressing a well-attended non-denominational memorial and thanksgiving service to round off activities marking the first anniversary of the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, at the Robert Mensah Sports Stadium in Cape Coast yesterday.
Ghanaians from all walks of life attended the service in black and white attire. Prayers were said for the family of the late President, the President and people of Ghana and for world peace.
Last week, the Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Mr Alfred Vanderpuije, announced that he and the AMA had renamed the National Hockey Pitch in honour of the late President Mills.
The pitch already bore the name of Madam Theodosia Okoh, a hockey administrator and designer of the national flag.
The decision of the AMA to rename the hockey pitch attracted various reactions and criticisms from people on media platforms.
In response to the apparent unilateral decision of the chief executive and the assembly, the Chief of Staff, Mr Proper Douglas Bani, on behalf of President Mahama, directed Mr Vanderpuije to reverse the decision to change the name of the hockey pitch.
Reacting to name change, Madam Okoh said such a decision by the AMA was very painful because it was done without any consultation with her.
But when the Presidency reverted the name of the hockey pitch to her name, Madam Okoh said she was overwhelmed by the President’s order.
“I was overwhelmed. Call a tool a tool and not a thing for digging. Good work is done by good people whom God has chosen,” she said on TV3 last Friday.
The nonagenarian further said: “President, I thank you very much that you have brought all of these things going around the hockey pitch to a stop. I am grateful to you because I know God has sent you to come and talk to us. Thank you…”
President Mills died at the 37 Military Hospital on July 24, 2012.
Theodosia Okoh Hockey Pitch
Commenting on the name change, President Mahama said President Mills was a modest man in all respects and he himself would not have accepted the renaming of the hockey pitch after him if he were alive.
“The pitch still remains the Theodosia Okoh Hockey Pitch,” the President declared.
President Mahama said President Mills was a peace-loving, decent, civil and modest man and all who appreciated those qualities sought to do something in his memory but cautioned that in seeking to honour the late President, nothing must be done with over-zealousness to embarrass him in death.
President Mahama stated that President Mills, with his departure, had joined a long list of heroes and heroines, all of whom deserved honour for their immense contributions to the nation.
He called for extensive sense of consultation to ensure that President Mills was honoured appropriately.
President Mahama said in remembering President Mills “Ghanaians must also remember that President Mills was human. He had feelings. He got upset, he got angry and got happy at times”.
“He was upset by betrayal and disunity in his own party, frustrated by abuse of office and angered by acts of corruption and fought to change these negative elements in the country,” President Mahama said.
However, he said, Ghanaians must know the values he stood for, and honour his memory by living those attributes in deed, and not in words.
Life beyond the grave
Preaching the sermon on the theme: “The Life that lives Beyond the Grave”, The Most Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church-Ghana, said the life and death of President John Evan Atta Mills should teach all Ghanaians a lesson to rise above negative partisanship and become builders of peace.
He said it was time Ghanaians rose above negative polarisation imposed by crude partisanship, and rather be inspired by the life and death of President Mills to reach out to one another to build a nation great and strong.
Most Rev Asante advised leaders and the rest of the public to build bridges over political and social differences and sow seeds of love and unity, justice, peace and harmony among themselves, “bearing in mind that we are fellow Ghanaians”.
Most Rev Asante said many people lived and saw life as a fight for fame and riches, while others competed in life for everything vanity.
He said such obsession for fame, riches and power eventually led to bitterness, acrimony, cheating and corruption, which often led to wars, poverty, disease, hunger and deaths.
Rather than chasing vanity, Most Rev Asante advised Ghanaians, both leaders and followers, to live sacrificial and selfless lives to humanity.
“We must learn to compete in soberness of mind that life is transient. Life is God’s gift and must be seen as such,” he said.
He also said President Mills rendered selfless service to God and humanity in the spirit of humility.
He called on Ghanaians to give justice and peace a chance, and be inspired by the sensitivity of the late President to make life better for the masses.
By Shirley Asiedu-Addo/Daily Graphic/Ghana