The Holy Spirit led me to rant at my husband’s funeral – Matilda Amissah-Arthur

Mrs Matilda Amissah-Arthur, the widow of the late former Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, has said she was led by the “spirit” to vent her spleen during the funeral of her husband last year.

In her tribute at the final funeral ceremony at the Accra International Conference Centre on Friday, 27 July 2018, Mrs Amissah-Artur said: “Over the last few weeks, I have been amazed at the number of people who have come to show appreciation and I ask myself: ‘Is this Ghana?’ Are all these people in Ghana because of the maligning, the lies, the treachery, the wickedness, the mischievousness?

“I ask myself: Is this Ghana? I ask myself is this, my own husband, that you have come to say tribute to? And today, I ask the same question: Did people really know my husband? Did they take time to know him? The false accusations, the lies the maligning, did they know him? My dearest, me, your children, we know you.”

Her remarks sent the nation talking about the hypocrisy of loving the dead in this part of the world irrespective of how the person may have been treated while alive.

Speaking to David Ampofo on ‘Time With David’, the former Second Lady said the Holy Spirit led her to say what she said that day.

“Led by the Spirit, I said what I said. I was led by the Holy Spirit,” she stated.

Asked if she was not too harsh in her utterances, Mrs Amissah-Arthur said: “I wasn’t harsh, I was frank.”

She explained that: “When people are reading tributes, whether written or off the cuff, people are entitled to what they say and how they say it. Nobody can tell a grieving person what to say at a funeral and what not to say. First of all, you’re not me, so, you cannot tell me how to grieve to start with and then how I should say it”.

“All I said, I didn’t mention names. Coming from the background where the man lying there had been bastardised, had been called all kinds of names, then the man dies and even those who had called him names come and they say: ‘He’s a gentleman’s gentleman’, ‘he’s so intelligent’, ‘he’s so hardworking’, so, my whole point is that if this is politics, then it’s wrong because you should not do politics in such a way that you lie… So, the point I made was that hypocrisy, dishonesty, lies will not get this country anywhere and that we should do politics neatly.”