Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) says he prefers to be left out of issues relating to the health of presidents.
Koku Anyidoho who was the Director of Communications at the Osu Castle during the late President John Evans Atta Mills administration says he fears to lose the spiritual backing of his mentor if he comments on the issue.
Over the years, the issue of the health state of presidential candidates has come up time and again for debate especially during election years.
While some have argued that it is a personal and very private matter of the candidates, others have said candidates owe it as an obligation to the taxpayer.
The late Mr Mills was attacked from various quarters including some key people within the NDC who thought he was not fit to continue as a president. Some members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) also spoke about his health status.
Indeed handlers of the President were severely criticised for a physical fitness show off by the President in 2012 after he had touched down from a trip abroad.
Mr Mills had gone for “a routine medical check-up” which lasted some 10 days in the United States, and in an apparent attempt to prove that he was fit and healthy, he started jogging in his suit and tie under the scorching sun at the Kotoka International Airport.
This came against the backdrop of death rumours and calls for the President to show himself in public.
Before departing for the United States for the medical check-up, Mr Mills said he had heard rumours that he was dead and wondered the basis for such rumours.
Questions had been asked about the whereabouts of the president after he had not been seen in public for close to two weeks whilst communal violence ravaged parts of the country in Hohoe in the Volta Region.
After the death and burial of Mr Mills, there were several calls again for his medical records and cause of death to be made available to the public.
It is not surprising that the issue of the health state of presidential candidates is back in the news in 2016.
The Africawatch magazine in its Monday, August 29 edition is reported to carry a story regarding the NPP flag bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, suffering from acute cancer. They attributed a hospital in the UK as their source of information.
The Spokesperson for Nana Akufo-Addo, Mustapha Hamid on Joy FM’s Newsnite programme Monday dismissed all claims that the NPP leader is battling ailments.
Mr Hamid said the flag bearer is “very healthy and buoyant campaigning in the uppermost corner of the country.”
Some people have said it is the opposition NDC who are putting such stories up in the media.
However, Mr Anyidoho in a reaction first quoted Mathew 17:12: “Do to others as you would like them to do to you” to begin his submission.
He said there is no way the NDC as a political party is going to make the health state of any flag bearer their campaign issue.
“It is wrong, it is ugly, it is unacceptable, let nobody make the health issue of any flag bearer an issue,” he told Dzifa Bampoh.
When asked if he would support calls for President Mahama to make public the state of his health, a solemnly speaking Mr Anyidoho said, “God forbid that I, Koku Anyidoho, speak about the health state of any flag bearer. I saw what President Mills went through, I saw what candidate Mills went through. The day I will speak about the health issues of any flag bearer, President Mill’s spiritual support for Mills wherever he is will leave me and I don’t want it.”
He was empathic that it is not the NDC’s policy to speak about anyone’s health and the party prefers its campaign to be on what he calls “solid issues”.
A reflective Mr Anyidoho said, “we are all sick as human being, the only person who is not sick is God in heaven.”
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