The Trotting President: Part Two

President John Mills

It has been nearly one month since I wrote the Part One of this piece.  I wanted to wait for sometime in order to study the health status of the president after his 'routine medical check-up' in far away US.

When he returned after 10 good days of 'routine medical check-up', he told the good people of this dear country of ours that:

'The reports of the doctors show that I have strong energy enough for the past, the present and the future; and therefore I should drive from here to the Castle to do my work'.

Even though he trotted on a wobbling feet, there were some who believed that indeed the man was strong.  That was a fatal mistake.

ACT TWO
SCENE ONE 
The president enters the Castle amidst jubilations and Champagne pumping.  Civil Servants who had no choice but join the wagon, tried to outdo each other in praise singing.  The president retires to his bedroom, removes his clothes with the help of Koku Anyidoho and relaxed in his bed, panting like a tired hunting dog.

Even though his doctors in the US charged him to go straight to the Castle and do his job, visitors were asked to come later because the president was resting after the 'routine medical check-up'.

The president wakes up the following morning feeling a little bit dizzy and tired.  He takes his breakfast and drugs and goes back to bed.

Because the Vice President was out of the country, the 'greedy bastards'  took over the affairs of the country with the likes of Okudzeto Ablakwa, James Agyenim Boateng, Fiifi Kwetey etc, messing around.

SCENE TWO
Whiles the president was resting at the Castle instead of working as directed by the physicians in the US, the rains started pounding the grounds as if the days of Noah have reached us in real time. It rained cats and dogs and the abandoned Nsawam to Suhum highway became unmotorable.

Travellers from Accra to Kumasi and those from the opposite side got stranded along the way and the people started grumbling like the Israelis did when they found themselves in the desert without water.

The radio stations as usual, blamed the NDC government for deliberately abandoning the project simply because they had the funny belief that when the road project was completed, the credit will go to ex-president Kufuor and the NPP who initiated the project.

As the pressure kept mounting, the handlers of the president had no choice but to literally carry the visibly weak president to the stretch of road to see things for himself.

Instead of the president reprimanding the contractor for the delay in executing the job, the president rather commended the contractor for a job well done.

He had no option because his government deliberately refused to pay the contractor to do the job but his government had the moral right to pay Alfred Agbesi Woyome a whooping 51 million Ghana Cedis for nothing but cronyism.

SCENE THREE
The president returned to the Castle to continue with his rest, forgetting that 'the report of the doctors showed that he has strong energy enough for the past, the present and the future; and therefore he should drive from the Kotoka International Airport to the Castle to do his work'.

The man simply defied his doctors and kept on resting until the Mayor of Accra, Mr. Alfred Okoh Vanderpuije, tickled him to wake up and follow him to cut a tape to open a newly constructed Millennium school in Accra.  At the ceremony, the president's cranky and shrill voice betrayed his state of health.

He beat his chest and told Ghanaians that he had performed creditably and that no government ever performed the way he had done.

On his way to board his official car, he stepped on a small stone which nearly sent him sprawling on the ground but he was quickly saved by his bodyguards. The flabbergasted aides who were escorting him to the car could be seen panting as if they were training for the ongoing Olympic Games in the 100meter race.

SCENE FOUR
Again the president went back to the Castle to rest, thereby rubbishing the instruction of his physicians who had ordered him to work. Then we woke up one morning to hear that our dear president had sent a letter to the Speaker of Parliament indicating that he was travelling to Nigeria.

The letter did not indicate whether the president was heading to that country on private appointment or official visit. The said letter did not also indicate that the president was as usual going for a 'routine medical check-up'.

A confused citizenry was left guessing as to what the president was going to that country to do.  Very surprisingly, his gagged and disgraced spokesman, Koku Anyidoho, was nowhere to be found for explanation.

SCENE FIVE
Then the rumour mill started grinding again.  Some said the president was visiting Prophet TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations to consult him for spiritual cure since his physicians in the US could not help him out, despite the 'the report of the doctors which shows that he has strong energy enough for the past, the present and the future; and therefore he should drive from the Kotoka International Airport to the Castle to do his work'.

After all, they said, was it not the same man of God who predicted that candidate Mills will win the 2008 general elections and that came to pass?

Some said he was going to Nigeria to rest because, Ghanaians were too inquisitive and wanted to know the whereabouts of the president every day.

And yet, there were some who were of the view that somebody recommended a traditional healer in Benin and that the president will cross over to that country from Nigeria to receive some herbs.  Ghanaians and their rumours!!

  CONCLUSION
When the issue of the late president's health status cropped up, I recommended denial and defended it as a legitimate option. To work effectively, though, denial requires secrecy, and secrecy pretty much, requires deception.  When one is confronted with the dilemma that the late president found himself, denial was the best option.

Our late president therefore, chose the right option.  It is simply easier to go through the day not thinking of your disease, if the people you interact with do not know you are sick.

You see, what you do with yourself in the privacy of your head is nobody else's business.  On the other hand, deceiving those around you is more troublesome.  If you fool yourself skilfully enough, you can banish thoughts of the disease but retain a liberating sense of urgency.

It is like having a Get Out of Jail free card from the prison of delayed gratification.  Skip the prying eyes of Ghanaians and visit the 37 Military Hospital?  Absolutely.

Following the death of the president, I have changed my stance as far as dealing with news of one's ailment is concerned.

This time around, I recommend confrontation and also defend it as another legitimate option.  Confrontation means putting the disease at the centre of your life: learning as much as you can about it, vigorously exploring alternative therapies, campaigning for more research funding and so on.

If the late president had adopted confrontation, I sincerely believe somebody might have had a cure for his alleged throat cancer.

Few things are more socially disapproved than inauthenticity or a refusal to face reality. In choosing confrontation, you embrace the 'community' of your fellow victims - another socially approved value.

However, in choosing denial, you are guilty of self-denial.  It is like a Jew or an African American putting on Wasp airs or worse still, trying to pass as a white Christian.

And so, the multimillion question is, who killed President Fiifi Atta Mills? The answer is not farfetched. The handlers and close aides killed Atta Mills.

They lied to Ghanaians about the health status of the president.  Instead of the handlers making sure the president received a thorough medical treatment outside the country, they kept lying to us as far as his health status was concerned.

Once a while, they will smuggle him outside the country for treatment only to return and tell us that he was not sick.  They did not make sure he stayed in hospital for some months to fully recuperate before coming down to continue with his job.

Even when he was struggling with pain on his sick bed at the 37 Military Hospital, these same liars sent a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, indicating that the president had travelled to Nigeria.  Call them murderers and you will not be far from being right.  Refer to them as shameless, good for nothing pathological liars and you will be right.

Anyway, to whom the bell tolls, it tolls for us all.  Lead kindly light, amid the encircling gloom.  Life is too short, old boy.  Fare ye well, Fareyi Kweigya!!!

By Eric Bawah