The Holy Quran teaches us that every soul that has tasted life, will surely taste death, so death is an inevitable end for both living and non-living things.
There is no question that troubles the human soul more than the cold, stubborn, obtrusive, universal fact of death. Hardly a day passes which does not remind us of death. In these days of evil, death is continually intruding into the circle of our friends, relations, acquaintances, our families and of course our heroes.
It is easier for us to divert our minds or steel our hearts when sorrows and tragedies come, but there is no making terms with death. Death is indisputable fact which we all have to face and meet one day. It is inevitable, unavoidable, and inescapable. What we�re not sure is, we know not where it lurks or when it may smite us down, so we should let the Asantehene be.
In times past some leaders, craved for immortality, some even travelled the world looking for a tree of the youth; it was believed that the tree ensures that one does not grow old. A Chinese leader once assembled the best medical practitioners in his time, to find medicine for death, it is said that it was one of the medicines they found that eventually killed him. Simply put, we will all die.
Death is no respecter of person; it will come when it will come, not when we wish somebody dies or when we wish to die.
Why do we find pleasure in the pains and suffering of others, if not, how can one explain why for some time now, we have developed the penchant of spreading falsehood about somebody�s death especially, that of our leaders, whose existence gives us so much than when they die.
At a time, when the rest of the world has found the best and important use of the internet: a tool of socio-political engagement and for creating network of businesses and wealth, we in this country are using it for destructive purposes and spreading falsehood.
People even went to the extent of using photoshop to implant people�s heads on others, just to mock and denigrate them. President John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, have all been victims of the negative impact of the internet.
We live in a country, where there is huge graduate unemployment, our universities and Polytechnics every year churn out graduates, with no available jobs, the Internet is one platform that the youth can harness to employ themselves, but what do we see, like a fire, which is a good master, but also a bad master, we are using the Internet and other social platforms for negative end.
The late President, John Evans Atta Mills, until his final demise on that fateful day of July 26, 2012, was constantly hounded out of this world. Some people have made themselves as the givers of life and so can determine who live or die.
Every day or anytime the man (Mills) was out of town for official business or on a routine medical checkup, they were constant news of the man having died. These rumors started when he was a Candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and continued when he became the President of Ghana in 2008.
On many occasions, the man defeated death; he always came back to the country stronger than he was when he left. As faith will have it, when it was time for him to go, he left us in peace to join his maker.
The same Ghanaians, who always wish the man was dead, even before his time, turned round to shed crocodile tears for him.
Some people in this country have turned themselves into merchants of death; they are the harbinger for the announcement of people�s death. The only message they receive from God, is about the death of one person or another.
The Asantehene Otumfuor Osei Tutu II, since last year, has also been declared dead many times than I care to remember. People are counting his days on earth with their death wishes. Like President Mills, they will always wait until the man is out of town, for them to start spreading rumors about his death, left to them, the man should never come back.
I have always wondered where people sit to concoct such stories, and for some strange and inexplicable reasons, it spreads like wild fire, is it that we are a country of gossips and rumour mongers?
These only shows how trivial we are, important issues that are supposed to engage our attention, are rather relegated to the background.
I woke up last Tuesday to find messages on my phone that the Asantehene is dead. I did not bother to call anybody to verify the veracity or otherwise of the information, because my first instinct was, what has this man done to these busy bodies, who have nothing good to contribute to this country and do not have good use of their time.
Lo and behold, a statement came from the Manhyia Palace, denying the rumour. The man was apparently in South Africa (SA).
The question I asked myself was, is Asantehene�s life a threat to some people? Is he denying them their existence? Is he eating their food? Or has the Manyia Palace, become too small for Asantehene to also have a space there or what?
If the answer to all the above questions is no, then why?
Asantehene is one figure, we should all be proud of, he has brought some vibrancy and development to the Ashanti Kingdom and Ghana, through his philanthropic work, especially his educational trust fund that was set up to help brilliant but needy children.
He is a good Ambassador for the country, he is celebrated everywhere he goes, from Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States of America (USA), we should encourage him to help to use his expertise and stature to bring investments into the country, rather than counting his days on earth.
Shame to whomever or group of people behind the wild rumour, may God have mercy on their souls.
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