Over the weekend, news was rife on social media such as Facebook and twitter about the death of president Fiifi Attah Mills. My initial reaction was to treat it as a diabolic rumor, after all it was not the first time his detractors have pronounced him dead. However after careful observation, I became worried and made it my duty to uncover the veracity or other wise of the story. I phoned a friend who has links with certain senior journalist in the country. My request was simple- for him to try and find out for me if government had issued a statement on the matter. I reminded him that if indeed there is a statement, he should ensure that it is signed by the appropriate personalities at the castle, this is a matter of life and death and I do not want to be deceived by Koku Anyidoho.
In the mean time, I logged unto the internet to check if the controversial man of God Prophet TB Joshua had predicted any presidential deaths during the week. Or maybe because Mr. President is his very good friend he opted to inform him privately? But if this was the case, the president should have informed us, we would have organized the ‘AGLOW’ women to ask God to reverse this unpopular decision- after all the voice of the people is the voice of God. As I sat quietly in my room, I thought about all the noise that was going to ensue should it come out that the president indeed is dead. All sorts of funny conspiracy theories were going to be unveiled- as usual some will blame the CIA for his death (they will conveniently point to his tight connection to China as the reason). Others will say he died from throat cancer . Some will even blame the NPP for poisoning or ‘jujuing’ the president (the latter is not possible under TB Joshua’s watch). I will not even be surprised if certain people will claim that he committed suicide because he still could not bring himself to terms with the intricacies of the ‘Woyome saga’.
People will ask all sorts of questions- are the Rawlingses going to be at the funeral? Did the president leave a will, if he did who did he will his alleged share of the ‘Woyome’ booty to? Is Aseidu Nketia going to win the bid to construct the president’s tomb? Where is the president going to be buried- Will it be in his ‘second home’ Keta, considering his hometown Ekumfi is on fire? Who is going to be the next president? What happens to all the posters and t-shirts that the NDC might have printed already for election 2012? I f there was going to be a new congress to elect a new presidential candidate, will Konadu contest? The more I thought about these issues the more confused I got and the more I prayed that the president was not dead.
After waiting for hours without any feedback from my friend, I decided to retire to my bed. Just before I slept off, I heard a voice on the radio that sounded like that of the president. I pinched myself to ensure I was not dreaming already. He was assuring everybody that he was alive and kicking and that he was only travelling for a ‘routine’ checkup. What a relief, our president is ‘unprecedented’ indeed- he is the only ‘dead man’ that talks. I was excited about the fact that our president was alive but what even impressed me most was the fact that he was also looking into the future (election 2012) and that gave me a lot of assurance.
I finally went to sleep with even more nagging questions lingering on my mind. Is the president really sick? If he is not why had he been silent whiles people were being murdered all over the country- or is it a case of ‘all die no be die’? Why are members of his party trying so hard to convince us he is not sick, is it a crime to be sick? What is the NPP’s interest in the issue? Is the president really going for a routine checkup?
From where I sit there are more questions than answers. My only word of advice to the NPP is to concentrate their efforts on convincing Ghanaians why they are a better alternative and stop wasting their efforts trying to convince everybody that the president is not well. To the NDC, I will leave them with this Native American proverb- it is difficult to wake a man who is pretending to be asleep. God bless the president, God bless our homeland Ghana!!

By: Kwame Yeboah
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