Eager mourners who gathered at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) yesterday to pay their final respects to former United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan were left disappointed as they met the casket covered.
Mourners wondered why organisers did not open the casket to allow those of them who never had the opportunity to see the man alive, do so before he is buried.
One of the disappointed mourners, Prof Ransford Gyampo, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana said the draped coffin culturally and traditionally defeats the purpose of a file past.
However, Deputy Information Minister Pius Enam Hadzide has explained why the mortal remains of the former UN General Secretary was covered.
He said the wish was to have a modest funeral.
He stated that it's not a major problem for the government to cover the casket though the death and burial is a state funeral.
"There are high-profile funerals that I’ve attended that I’ve seen the casket covered even in this country and, so, it’s not a major problem; the important thing is that you see the family sitting in state, and, so, the man Kofi Annan himself is a modest person, and, so, he doesn’t want a lot of flamboyance around the funeral with a lot of frills.
"Yes, this is a state funeral, we admit, but even as we give him a befitting state funeral, we think that it is still important that we respect his wishes of keeping it a little modest, a little soft and so far, it’s been very good," he revealed.