A US-based Ghanaian critic, Eric Mello, has called out Nana Yaw Akosah, popularly referred to as Papa Shee describing him as ‘an arsonist in clerical clothing’.
He believes that Papa Shee ought to be the ultimate problem solver rather than a prominent player in the ongoing drama involving the spouses of the late Daddy Lumba.
“Then enters the most dangerous variable in this entire saga: the so-called man of God, Papa Shee. A supposed spiritual guide encouraging endless litigation rather than introspection is not shepherding a soul. He is exploiting a wound”, Mello wrote on his Facebook Wall.
Below is his full statement with regard to Akosua Serwaa filling an appeal to challenge the High Court ruling declarong both Akosua Serwaa and Odo Bronias spouses of the late HighlifeLegend;
The very first moment I heard that Akosua Serwaa had landed in Ghana, I publicly expressed what any reasonable, emotionally intelligent person would hope for: that this would be a moment of reconciliation. A pause. A sober turning point. An opportunity to make peace with all the parties whose lives were genuinely intertwined with Lumba’s. (Odo Broni, the Abusuapanyin, her own children, and others whose presence cannot be erased by sentiment or law.) This was my only wish.
Yet, what we have witnessed instead over the weekend seems far from reconciliation, but exhibition. Not healing, but hostility. A carefully staged razzmatazz of arrival announcements, screaming legitimacy. The loud proclamation: “I am here. I am still the only legitimate wife. I must be recognized at all costs.”
Costs to whom?
Certainly not to truth.
Certainly not to dignity.
And certainly not to the children watching their mother transform private loss into public theatre.
What makes this even more intellectually disturbing is the conspicuous absence of maternal sensitivity. The optics are hard to ignore: a woman seemingly unconcerned with how this circus impacts her own children, yet fully invested in projecting herself as a public figure; the reluctant mascot of “unsuccessful marriages.”
Then enters the most dangerous variable in this entire saga: the so-called man of God, Papa Shee. A supposed spiritual guide encouraging endless litigation rather than introspection is not shepherding a soul. He is exploiting a wound. Any man of God who fans ego instead of humility, conflict instead of peace, and vengeance instead of wisdom is not a healer. He is an arsonist in clerical clothing.
True spirituality would have counseled restraint. True wisdom would have advised reconciliation.
True faith would have said, “Choose peace over performance.”
Instead, we have War and unending appeals.
……what exactly was the intention behind the public spectacles we witnessed from Friday through Sunday? To impress whom? To prove what? Celebration is personal, yes, but wisdom interrogates why celebration must be weaponized.
Why would anyone go to such lengths over a man who, by every observable measure, did not love, prioritize, or value them in life the way a spouse should be valued? This is the question the “Team Legal Wives” consistently evade with slogans instead of reasoning.
A man left you. (Home)
He moved on.
He entered another long-term relationship.
He fathered not one, not two, but multiple children openly, consistently, without secrecy.
And for all those years, there was silence. No public resistance. No moral outrage. No audacity. Nothing.
Then death occurs and suddenly legitimacy becomes sacred? Urgent? Non-negotiable?
That sequence will never make sense to a rational mind. Never!! The very moment he left you and undressed himself in front of another woman to see his nakedness moreso get intimate with her to have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 67 kids! That alone should’ve let you know your place.
Even in our most ordinary modern “sweetheart” relationships, we understand a basic truth: prolonged absence is communication. When calls stop. When messages go unanswered for days, weeks, or even months, we do not require a court to tell us something has ended. We read the signs. We process the reality. We exit emotionally.
So the unavoidable question is this:
Had you not already exited that marriage psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and perhaps even physically long before death intervened? Because no human being remains “present” in a relationship they have watched dissolve in real time for seventeen years without reaction.
Which brings us to the most cringe-inducing audacity of all: enduring abandonment while the man is alive, only to emerge after his death demanding superiority and exclusive recognition. That is not courage. It is a contradiction. If your husband ran off to live with another woman for nearly two decades, wisdom dictates that you move on completely. He should not exist in your emotional universe. To return posthumously to fight as “wife” is not empowerment. It is self-demeaning.
Nobody, of course, can dictate how you should live your life. But wisdom also teaches that some choices make one laughable not because people are wicked, but because logic has been insulted. What is being sold as loyalty (Akosua Serwaa) increasingly resembles narcissism. What is framed as legitimacy feels like entitlement. And what is paraded as righteousness (Papa Shee) looks disturbingly like sheepish submission to a back-stabbing friend masquerading as spiritual authority.
Where was this audacity when the man was alive?
Where was this insistence on legitimacy when children 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 were being born elsewhere?
You cannot abandon a battlefield for seventeen years and return after the war demanding medals.
Odo Broni will always be part of Lumba’s story.
You may litigate endlessly, but reality does not retreat. She existed. She mattered. She played a role. Nothing—absolutely nothing can change that. If you wanted to be recognized as the sole and legitimate wife of Lumba, you should have been a lioness in the first place and not after his death!
And the most painful irony? Your children are watching. And by all indications, they are not proud. They are embarrassed. Disgusted. Ashamed that their mother appears more invested in public dominance than private peace. If reconciliation was ever the goal, it should have begun with them.
As I have said before: make peace with Odo Broni. Make peace with your children. Because if legitimacy truly mattered, this energy should have surfaced when Lumba was alive-not after burial rites.
I genuinely hope you achieve whatever it is you seek. Validation, victory, or closure.
Wisdom knows when to fight.
Intelligence knows when to stop.
Dignity knows when silence speaks louder than appeals.
