Late Agyarko’s widows spit on his corpse?

The rumour about the alleged political tussle between the two widows of the late Emmanuel Kyeremanten Agyarko, reminds me of the Blockbuster movie with the title “I spit on your grave”.

For all purposes and intents, spitting on someone’s grave, any where in the world, and particularly in Africa, is a sign of extreme disrespect for the dead, if not a taboo.

Whereas spitting on one’s grave is bad enough, it is even much worse to spit directly on the corpse itself.

But it would appear to me that it is what the two widows of the late Ayawaso West Wuogon MP and their respective followers may be doing to his corpse.

The rumour is that posters of the two women, Lydia Agyarko and Naana Agyarko are out indicating their desire to run for the seat their husband left behind; and this comes while the man’s corpse is still at the mortuary, waiting to be buried.

Even though the two women have themselves not gone public to announce their intention to compete, they have also not dissociated themselves from those campaigning for them.

In Africa, we have extreme respect for the dead, it is sometimes even offensive. In Ghana, for instance, when a man dies, his widow is kept in solitary confinement until after burial.

Then after burial she still remains in confinement and wears black for weeks before she is allowed to resume normal life after performing some release rituals.

In as much as modernization seem to have watered down that time-consuming ritual, it is only normal to lay a dead man to rest before thinking about sharing his property, much more even fighting over it.

And if anyone would fight over a dead man’s property before his burial, definitely not his widows.

It is a sign of great disrespect for the dead and anyone who does that must either have deep-seated greed or a “pint” of witchcraft, to say the least.

To think that this is all happening even before Electoral Commission could say anything about by-elections is even much worse on the part of the two widows and their supposed supporters.

This is not the first time a late MP’s wife would seek to replace her husband in Parliament. In year 2000, Prof. Gyan Amoah, an NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi South died after six months in Parliament. His wife, Cecilia Gyan Amoah run in the by-elections and won and became MP.

In 2016, an NDC aspirant at Shai-Osudoku, William Ocloo died and his wife, Linda Ocloo took over and beat Dr. Kpessah White to become NDC candidate; then went on to win the parliamentary seat. She is currently the MP.

In all those two instances, the widows of the deceased, though had ambitions to contest for the seats, were patient enough to wait for their husbands to be buried, at least that respect was given.

In the case of the late Agyarko, I understand his body has not even arrived in the country and some youth of the constituency have already petitioned officials of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) against Lydia Agyarko, Mr Agyarko’s second wife, who has decided to contest in the by-election.

They claim that the first wife, Naana Agyarko should be allowed to contest for the seat stating that “NO NAANA AGYARKO, NO VOTE”.

Now here’s a BettyBlueMenz Perspective; it is an unwise thing the wives of the late Ayawaso West Wuogon MP, Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko are doing by exposing their nakedness to the public.

The late Agyarko was a noble man who served as a former Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Board now Authority (FDA).

He was Chairperson of the Environment, Science and Technology Committee in Parliament.

He also served on the Government Assurance and Health Committees. The two widows owe it to their late husband to protect his legacy and honour.

It is called last respect. If they finish paying the man that last respect, I Betty Mensah (and I believe I speak for majority of Ghanaians) don’t really care what they do with the parliamentary seat.

But for now, they should stop inciting some ignorant youth against each other.

They should smoke the peace pipe and work towards protecting the man’s image and legacy.

The obscenity of their scramble for the seat can rather cost the party dearly and if that happens their would have tarnished the image of the deceased.

The two women must remember that nine other people have declared their intention to run for that seat.

So they are running against nine people to protect their late husband’s legacy. They way to do it is not to be seen divided in this manner.

Women are keepers. These two women must strategize well to keep what their husband left behind. But the way they are going now, I beg to say that they risk making the man turn in his grave.

I rest my case here…