<<Print>>

The principal streets of Accra have been adorned with red and black decorative items and bountings to usher Ghana into a three-day state funeral for President John Evans Atta Mills. Electric poles, trees and fences along the principal streets and roundabouts of the national capital, have been decorated with red and black items. They include the Kanda Highway, the George Walker Bush Highway and the newly named Evans Atta Mills High Street. Other areas are the Ridge Roundabout, the Osu Cemetery Road, the Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the Ridge Roundabouts. The decorations have added more solemnity to the occasion as many Ghanaians have been wearing black and red attire since the President died on Tuesday July, 24, 2012. Offices such as the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) on the Graphic Road, the Ghana National Association of Teachers Heights (GNAT Heights) on the Liberation Road, the Enterprise Insurance Office on the High Street and the ministries have all decorated their frontages with pieces of red and black mourning cloth. A visit to all the venues for the funeral rites of President John Evans Atta Mills in Accra showed they were bubbling away with activities. The State House, where the late President would be laid in state from Wednesday to Thursday, as well as the frontage of the Parliament House, adjacent the State House have been draped in red and black mourning cloths. The car park in front of the Banquet Hall of the State House has been transformed into a huge concert hall with lights and speakers competing for space. While huge speakers hang in the air held by metal bars and racks, an array of lights has been arranged in a spectacular style on almost all the stages overlooking the car park in front of the State House. Here, sound and lighting engineers were milling around pulling and fixing cables in preparation for the funeral which starts Wednesday. Billboards and banners are all over. While those glued to the Banquet Hall have the inscription �Peace I leave with my nation,� another one with a smiling image of the late President says �Man of Peace. Rest in Peace.� A number of Ghanaians continue to show their grief by wearing black, red (traditional mourning colours), or a combination of the two while some traders have taken advantage of the opportunity to make some money. In the Accra Central Business District, many hawkers were seen selling paraphernalia of the late President and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), his party, which is in power. Musah, a vendor of booklets on the life, history, death of the late President, said since the death, he had been selling a 100 copies daily. Others interviewed said copyright issues prevented printing presses from owning up to the responsibility of printing the portrait pictures of the President and other pieces of information captured in the booklets. Cars have not been left out as many of them were seen with strips of red cloths hanging from either their side mirrors or antennas. Many commercial drivers are also fully participating in the mourning activities for the President. Some have beautifully decorated their vehicles with pictures of the late President, as well as the traditional mourning colours of red and black. Drivers and hawkers, while expressing sympathy, said they would seize the opportunity to make some money.