A year down the road after the shocking demise of our late president , H.E John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills people close to him are still resounding their position that the late president joined the heavenly qoire because he could no more deal with the pains inflicted on his heart through insults and betrayals.
Kwamena Ahwoi one of the key pillars in the government of the late president resounded this position and so did Koku Anyidoho who was very close to the late president and his communications director at the presidency.
Although no specific names have been mentioned, Koku Anyidoho left a clue which could bare the foot prints of people like Former president Rawlings a.k.a Mr Boom. Most of the accusing fingers did not leave out the opposition NPP as part of the insulting brigade that fiercely attacked the late “Asomdwoehene” to death.
The NDC communication apparatus has consistently refused to attribute the cause of the death of the late president to his ailing condition and the suspicion of many that the president was either negligently or pre-determinedly pushed down a slippery steep to death maybe much earlier than it should have taken him by people around him.
Many who argue that the president was killed by negligence or corroborated effort, mention how his condition deserved that he had rest instead of running marathons in a scorching sun at the Kotoka International Airport and hovering all over Ghana cutting sods. Those hundred meters were said to have been the idea of the people around him including Mr Token, who will push the president into such dangerous activity to score cheap political points against the general idea that the late president was indeed ailing. Some of the same pundits who accuse the people around the president of having hands in his sudden death also question how the president could be lying unattended to by a doctor, after collapsing in his office for over 30 minutes as was earlier passed around. Such folks won’t accept the excuse that the personal doctor of the president was not available at the time he collapsed.
Many have also wondered why it took the people around the president the length of time they told Ghanaians it took to transport the dying president to the 37 Military Hospital. From the castle to the Hospital should not take an ambulance fitted with sirens even 20 minutes to drive to the 37 Military Hospital but it took close to two hours to transport the president to the hospital. And this leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
If indeed the president even died out of insults and vilification as Betty Mould Iddrisu added yesterday, who caused the insults? This is the post-mortem that I really want us to carry out.
Let us just accept that the president died of ‘acute villinsult syndrome’, my own name of the disease that emanates from vilifications and insults which has the potency of killing our president. Let me take Ghanaians back to 2000 to 2004 elections which saw the late Asomdwoehene beaten by former president Kuffour. In both elections it will be recorded that even the main opposition NPP were part of the people who praised the credentials of the late president. In fact many if not all, NPP communicators were generous to praise the fine gentleman despite the fact that he was the main opposition to their then candidate, Kuffour. All Ghanaians will remember how ahead of the 2008 elections some ‘babies with sharp teeth’ started throwing all kinds of dirty waters at Nana Addo the NPP presidential candidate which in turn attracted same calibre of water at the late president. Ghanaians can bear witness that until the NDC communication decided to throw caution to the dogs by shameless piling all kinds of dirt on the head of Nana Addo, the late Professor was a man everybody respected and had nothing to even say against him.
In this regard if the supposed insults of the NPP communicators formed part of the cause of the late president’s death, the catalysts were his own boys who decided to use vilification as their only key to winning the 2008 elections.
Secondly let me be quick in mentioning that the late president’s abysmal performance in office was mainly to be blamed on his ill health which the NDC communication machinery was not ready to admit. The late president could have been eased of most of the criticisms that came his way if they were sincere to the populace about his deteriorating health. He could have been holidayed from the attacks because many will have considered his health condition and pardon him for his below belt performance. But no, they presented him to the furious blows as a strong man who could stand all the arsenals pointing at him.
I nearly cursed “Mr Token” yesterday when I read his confession that the late president never wanted to be a president in the first place. I was mad when he said he had always wanted to ditch politics and return to the classroom where he(the late president) knew he was best and comfortable. My questions to his confessions were simple and straight. Koku, if you people were aware that the late president was not happy being a president why did you drag him through all that stress? If you knew he did not like the hustle and heckle involved in the job why did you not allow him to go rest at least for the sake of his ill health? Why this punishment and don’t you think it contributed to his death? From Koku’s analysis the man was always unhappy in the seat, so why keep him there?
Talking about Mr. Rawlings’ betrayal as a contributing factor, don’t you think that because the late president was obviously not in charge it gave room for some of the criticisms? The story of the league between Mr Rawlings and his once close pal can’t be concluded. How he took him from the classroom and groomed him into politics to the displeasure of some very good friends of Mr Rawlings himself.
After those years the former president will surely be surprised at some of the things done during the era of Prof. Mills. What he may not have known was that it wasn’t the prof. acting, but some masked faces which acted on his behalf and eventually trampling upon the toes of Mr Rawlings. Another way to have laid to rest the “booms” emanating from the out spoke party founder was to be clear to him about his health. This will have attracted sympathy from the former president who was aware his once vice president was not in good state. After all he had a prior idea about the health of his close pal during the campaign which saw him becoming the president of Ghana. This will have relieved the late president from the blames because it will have been clear that it wasn't his doing.
From every indication, the people around the late president have a lot of questions to answer about the death of one of Ghana’s finest professors. To be brief, the insincerity of the NDC communication and especially those close to the president about his health placed the quiet man under a massive and unnecessary pressure which surely worsened his health status.
2. Again, their combined effort to rain insults on Nana Addo was counter-productive as it emboldened people who had hitherto respected the law lecturer to gather all kinds of dirt and throw them at the Prof causing him a lot of pain and adding up to worsen his already bad state. 3. Moreover, forcing the heavy crown of presidency on the head of the late president under such duress placed him in a furnace that really drained peace out of his soul and eventually eliminating his life points massively. 4. What were they thinking will be the results when a man advised by advanced specialist in the USA to have very good rest is made to run in the scorching Ghana sun and also made to cut sods all over Ghana with the stress of travelling in those convoys and made to stand in the sun for hours? 5. What kept them from getting medical aid for the president after he collapsed for the period of time they told us? So who do they want to blame? There are too many unanswered questions that people around the late president need to answer.
Anyway, may your soul rest in peace, Prof John Evans Atta Mills. May you find refuge in the arms of the most high.
Noah Asare. Stockstadt, Germany.