President Nana Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT NANA Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over the weekend embarked on a number of assignments at a time elements of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) were ‘jubilating’ that he had been rushed to hospital.
Within 48 hours, the President travelled to Niamey, Niger, on Friday for an ECOWAS Meeting on Guinea Bissau, returned to Ghana and travelled up north to the Upper East Region to mourn the passing of the father of Deputy Attorney General Joseph D. Kpemkpa at Tempane.
He then headed straight from the Upper East to Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on Saturday to mourn the death of Francis Awuah Kyeremanten, a cousin of the Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyeremanten.
His presence at the funeral ceremony, held at the Heroes Park, near the Baba Yara Stadium, attracted scores of mourners and curious people in Kumasi to the solemn programme.
Fake News
Some NDC elements seeing the President’s convoy enter Nyaho Clinic at the Airport Residential Area, Accra, on Wednesday started circulating a video on social media suggesting that the President was seriously sick and had been rushed there.
The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, in a statement debunking the ‘sick’ claims, had said “the President on Wednesday, 6th November, after commissioning the Ga-East District Hospital at Kwabenya en route to Jubilee House went to the Nyaho Clinic to visit Mr. Tommy Amematekpor, a stalwart of the NPP, who is on admission at the clinic.”
An obviously surprised Eugene could not fathom where the vile claim was coming from even though he was not surprised it was coming from the camp of the NDC and was emphatic that “for the avoidance of doubt, no such thing happened.”
The presence of President Akufo-Addo, who looked cheerful, at the funeral grounds in Kumasi and Tempane, further gave credence to the fact that the NDC was stepping up its vile propaganda ahead of the 2020 general election.
There was spontaneous jubilation in Kumasi when the President landed at the funeral grounds.
Nicknamed as ‘Show Boy’, the first gentleman of the land was seen moving round the funeral grounds to shake hands with dignitaries, amidst shouts of “Addo Show Boy!”
Even after the President and the top dignitaries had taken their seats, some of the mourners could still be heard chanting his name and he continually nodded his head in appreciation
Recently, President Akufo-Addo said anytime he visited a loved one at the hospital it was translated by his opponents to mean he had collapsed and was in preparation for his evacuation abroad.
He then said, “All I can say is that those whose political fortunes depend on my ill health and degeneration, all I can say is that we are all in the hands of the Almighty God.”
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr., Kumasi