President John Evans Atta Mills
President John Evans Atta Mills’ trip for a routine medical check-up in the United States raked a lot of dust. What should have been an ordinary trip for medical attention by the President was unduly mired in controversy, the reason for which is not far-fetched.
The President’s minders, being oblivious of the limits of propaganda, went the full hog to treat the subject the way they have always done.
This way, they inadvertently trivialized the importance of a meeting between the Commander-In-Chief and his American doctors. A second opinion in such medical situations is always better and we do not begrudge him. But should we not know about such developments in full? Giving a dose of propaganda to serious matters elicits such negative outcomes.
The President’s withdrawal from public against the backdrop of the security challenges which visited some parts of the country prompted questions about his whereabouts. But with those at the helm almost always paranoid, such questions were met with polemic responses. The verbal wrath was even extended to Nana Akufo Addo, flagbearer of the largest opposition party in the country, when he wished the President well, as the latter embarked upon his trip for medical attention. Even prayers for the president at this time were viewed with paranoid suspicion.
They virtually told Nana “to go to hell” with his kind words, considering his words as unwelcome. That is the level of politics in an Atta Mills-led NDC.
President Mills’ health status is a no-go area, so restricted that any attempt at dealing with it in whatever form will not be countenanced among the membership of his inner circle.
There could not have been a better comic relief for Ghanaians than the emanating drama to debunk the story about the President’s health status, as those at the helm of the propaganda machinery of government fell over one another to present to Ghanaians the image of a healthy President.
The picture of a President Mills, which they dangled in front of Ghanaians, as he himself talked to parry the rumours about his death, made the American trip unnecessary.
Although he is by no means trying to mimic the Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez who has visited Cuba for a cancer treatment, both men have sought to reassure their compatriots about how strong they are.
While President Mills took to doing what in the military is called a “double mark time” at the airport, on the question as to whether he looks like someone who had died, his Venezuelan counterpart sang a song soon after touching down in Caracas, ready as he implied, to contest the forthcoming polls in the South American country. What an unnecessary brouhaha over a President’s health full of unnecessary massaging of realities.
