When it comes to doing politics with the health of political opponents in Ghana, members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) do not have the moral right to be pointing accusing fingers because they are tainted, Kojo Adu-Asare, a presidential staffer, has said.

He made the comment following Monday’s report by Africa Watch magazine that the flag bearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, acute kidney disease and an enlarged heart since 2013.

Mr Akufo-Addo, while speaking with the Bolgatanga Traditional Council in the Upper East Region on Sunday, August 28, during his campaign told the crowd that the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and President John Mahama were fabricating lies about him in their quest to retain the presidency in the 7 December polls.

He said: “First, they said I was a drug addict; it didn’t work. They said I was sick; it didn’t work. They said I was too old; it didn’t work. They said I was a hunchback; it didn’t work. They said I was a dwarf; it didn’t work. They said I was in a wheelchair; it didn’t work. They said I am a murderer; it didn’t work. They said I would die in June; it didn’t work. They said I was a dictator; it didn’t work. They said I was intolerant; it didn’t work. They said I was violent; it didn’t work. They said I had a secret agenda to destabilise the country; it didn’t work. Now, they say I have cancer, it will not work. It appears the only way the President will get a third term is when I am sick or I am dead. That is the only ground on which he will get his third term.”

Buttressing Mr Akufo-Addo’s comment, Mr Mac Manu told Naa Dedei Tettey in an interview on 12Live on Class91.3FM that “this is a campaign of political destruction” which is employed “when an incumbent government is losing an election in Africa”.

“…I’ve seen it in Nigeria where they painted [a] gloomy picture about Buhari: Buhari is dead, Buhari has cancer, Buhari is on a sick bed, the same things they are saying about Nana Akufo-Addo [now]. I want to tell them, NDC, that whatever they learnt from President Jonathan which didn’t work there, they should drop it because it is not going to work in Ghana… Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not sick of any cancer. …They want to throw mud at Nana Akufo-Addo, they want to distract us from the key issues and the key government matters. … This campaign is about the eight-year rule of the NDC. …It is a referendum of the eight-year rule of the NDC,” Mr Mac Manu added.

“…It’s false and if the NDC will pay people to spread false news as was in Nigeria in the case of Buhari, then fine, they can. But the Ghanaian voters are discerning like their counterparts in Nigeria, and history is going to repeat itself here. …We are not bothered…”

But speaking on Inside Politics on Class 91.3 FM hosted by Moro Awudu on Monday August 29, Mr Adu-Asare said: “It is as if their (NPP) own shadows are chasing after them because this is their stock-in-trade. They are saying it is the…NDC that tagged Nana Addo with cancer… I think that Nana Addo will save himself a little bit of the embarrassment if he doesn’t wade into that [matter] because it is not everything that is newsworthy in our local [setting]. We have cultures, we have traditions, and we believe in them. We think some things don’t fit into our society and if [they don’t], we should not introduce it.

“The only challenge is that the NPP, their hands are dirty when it comes to that [politicking with health of political opponents] and I am making reference to the late President Mills. They did worse things and they can envision that we (NDC) [want] to take [that same] path, the path they took during President Mills’ era when he was also going through some bouts of ailments here and there. The words they threw at him, the insults and the insinuations and vituperations they poured all over the place, they think the NDC is going to wade into that kind of politics [but] we won’t.

“We want to prove to the NPP that we are better people, we believe in the sanctity of the human life, we respect human dignity, and we will not fall to that kind of politics.”