Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle
The Catholic Archbishop of the Cape Coast Archdiocese, Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle, on Friday resurrected the debate over high spending on funerals in Ghana.
He spoke highly against the typical Ghanaian attitude of keeping bodies of the dead in the morgue for several months, thereby attracting a lot of needless cost.
Giving a sermon at a requiem for the late Joseph Henry Mensah who served the country in various capacities at the peak of his life, Rev. Palmer-Buckle commended the family of J.H. Mensah for not wasting too much time and resources on their kinsman in that they didn’t keep his body at the morgue for a long period.
He made a passionate appeal to all Ghanaians saying “please, let us all do well to bury our loved ones within one week or two weeks. Lying interminably in the mortuary in that cold condition is not very pleasant for any soul that wants to go to God.”
He added: “I believe we are wasting too much time. We are wasting too much money and we are wasting too many resources on burials and funerals in Ghana. Again, I hope I will be permitted to plead with you, our dear President, and with you, our traditional leaders, to let us give such good examples for all to follow so that we do not spend undue time and money on funerals and on the dead”.
“Let us spend these treasures of time, resources and money on the living, by educating our children and our youth in schools, buying medication and healthcare for our old folks in hospitals and in homes, and for the development of our country for the good of posterity,” he continued.
The man of God was of the opinion that the money spent on the dead could be put to better use by using it to help others who may be in dire need.
The late J.H. Mensah died in the early hours of Thursday, 12th July, 2018, at the 37 Military Hospital at age 89.
He began working as an assistant inspector of taxes in 1953 while the Gold Coast was still under colonial rule.
In 1958, Mr Mensah joined the United Nations Secretariat at the Centre for Development Planning, Projections and Policies, in New York City, United States.
He returned to Ghana in 1961 as the Head of Agency at the National Planning Commission which drew and implemented the country’s Seven-Year Development Plan (1962–1969).
In 1969, he was elected to Parliament and became the finance minister until 1972, when he was replaced by head of state, Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, after a military coup.
In 2005, he was appointed senior minister by President J.A. Kufuor.
J.H. Mensah, until his death, was a founding member of the governing New Patriotic Party.
The funeral was attended by President Akufo-Addo and Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia as well as three former presidents and other guests.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent