Under the fluid eye-catching caption “Age Takes Toll On Buhari As Vice President Takes Over” we come across the following melancholy diagnosis of Buhari’s medical condition:

“The president has an infection in his left ear, otherwise called Meniere Disease, a challenge which has drastically reduced his outings in the last one week. As a result of the infection, the president now suffers hearing impairment and routinely complains of severe pains and unusual sounds from that ear…”

“Mr. Buhari had on three recent occasions cancelled official trips and outside the country due to the infection and was represented at those events by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo…”

From here we will dare say that it is a highly misplaced choice of vision for anyone to try to make Buhari’s melancholy diagnosis Akufo-Addo’s.

In fact, such a convenient correlation will have no direct impact on the makeups of the two individuals given the marked variance in their pharmacogenomics development pathways—that is, there may not be direct parallels in their genetic makeups beyond the commonality of their racial Africanness.

In other words Buhari and Akufo-Addo are entirely different species notwithstanding the interesting factor of age proximity.

This statement is borne out of the fact that, those supporters who tend to equate Buhari with Akufo-Addo sometimes also forget that their age proximity do not necessarily translate to a common vision, the pursuit of common national policy objectives, and even intellectual, ideological and philosophical similarities in strategies and tactics of political diplomacy—between the two men.

Of course, we will also want the general subtext of the afore-mentioned quote to be understood purely as a statement of metaphor on the one hand and on the other, purely as a statement of literalness.

“Metaphor” in that disease states as natural phenomena are inescapable from the point of view of the realities of human existence, transcending age boundaries as it were—but more so in the case of advanced age—the threshold of senility.

We should also point out that old age is not madness but a fact of life. It does not need evidence to prove its existence because it is its own evidence. Old or advanced age is not subject to “a matter of time” because it is contemporaneous with time. Or that it is time itself embodied in the genesis of biological life—human.

Which is that old or advanced age—like death—are inescapable and worked into the human genome.

So let us respect Akufo-Addo for that.

It is also true that some of us may not even attain that advanced state in human development.

In other words old age is a surety unless one does not get there. And it comes once in a lifetime.

Hear Bob Marley on “Real Situation”:

“Once a man and twice a child…And everything is for a while…”

There is blessing in old age in that it sometimes, supposedly, comes with a “complete” package of wisdom, common sense, and intelligence borne out of experience.

And yet maturity may not necessarily be an exact expression of wisdom, common sense, and intelligence but a mere semblance of these priceless human qualities.

“Literalness” in that the two men—though of advanced age and of the African “race”—may not share the same pharmacogenetics profiles.

And yet, our “metaphor” and “literalness” are nearly the same concepts if one were to understand the genetic origination of human evolution—monogenesis.

All these facts and pseudo-facts directly or indirectly bear on the weight of political cognition that naturally comes with the general character of the executive political office.

An important point here is that the executive political office is a shared space—with cabinet ministers and brain trusts.

And the political instrument—“delegation of authority”—should potentially ease this weight of political cognition which the “singular” bearer of the executive office of the presidency, in both theory and praxis, carries.

The weight of political cognition is therefore borne on several “necks”—so to speak—more like the Hydra of Lerna in Greco-Roman mythology!

In this way there originates a distribution of cognition pressure across a hierarchy of minds, agreeable or otherwise, rather than through a rigid centroid of charismatic authority.

We are hereby making a beeline for a semblance of democratic culture in our clueless duopolistic partisanship.

Nevertheless, this partly explains why a president must have a sound mind and a sound body to meet the rigors of political action head-on, in other words given the challenging nature of the job.

It is however ironic that those who are quick to cite Buhari’s (and Alassane Ouattara’s) age in support of the presidential bid or potential presidency of Akufo-Addo, also fail to draw any direct correlations between Buhari’s age-related diseases (as well his other political shortcomings) and those of Akufo-Addo.

Which is that supporters of Akufo-Addo are quick to appropriate the positives of Buhari for political expediency and partisan advantage, but conveniently keep mute over his [Buhari’s] negatives.

Regrettably, these supporters are the same who will say Nkrumahists uncritically worship Nkrumah without acknowledging his fallibility.

But which Nkrumahist has ever claimed Nkrumah to be infallible?

As far as we are concerned, this rhetorical question has never been pointedly asked let alone thoroughly explored!

Having said that, these Akufo-Addo supporters totally ignore the negatives of Buhari just so they could use his proverbial positives to shore up the former’s political profile in the mind of the gullible.

And if a direct correlation truly exists between the two men in terms of political vision and age proximity, then surely Akufo-Addo and his sycophantic supporters must also own Buhari’s faults and biologic frailties—his negatives.

These gullible supporters cannot read some of the pages of the Buhari book while conveniently leaving out or skipping others.
We can only hope that Buhari’s Ménière’s disease and hearing impairment are not—figuratively or metaphorically speaking—transferable to Akufo-Addo.

Ghana is doomed if this really happens—as Akufo-Addo’s Ménière’s disease has caused him not to listen to the great wisdom of the Kufuor-Asante faction in the ethnocentric NPP—leading to his electoral crash at the polls just like it occurred to his ancestral predecessor J.B. Danquah, a pseudo-nationalist and an unfulfilled, unaccomplished fifth columnist.

The implication here is that Akufo-Addo already has the Ménière’s disease and that any cumulative contributions from Buhari’s will certainly worsen an already precarious situation.

If this Buhari “infection” should transfer to Akufo-Addo by any means necessary then Buhari’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo—Akufo-Addo’s Mahamudu Bawamia—will take over the presidency of the Ark of the Covenant which the Akyems and the Asantes have been haggling over for the longest time.

And oh, the Akyems and the Asantes have not been singing Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time.”

Still, the Ark of the Covenant being haggled over the Akyems and the Asantes will leave Pastor Otabil Mensah’s Accra-based International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) for the great Northern Region—the real seat of Ghana’s head.

The ethnocentric NPP under the wobbly leadership of Akufo-Addo will not want this to happen.

Oh Mahamudu Bawumia (MB)!

Oh Mahammadu Buhari (MB)!

Prophet Mohammad—where art thou?

Prophet Mohammad—are you happy with African politics?

Prophet Mohammad—are you happy with Al-Shabab?

Prophet Mohammad—were you happy when Akufo-Addo traveled to Jerusalem just for the sake of seeking the Face of God—at the Wailing Wall?

Prophet Mohammad—was it the Face of God or the Face of Allah which Akufo-Addo sought at the Wailing Wall?

Prophet Mohammad—did Akufo-Addo “steal” his “all-die-be-die” war cry from your jihad or from the Christian Crusades?

Hypocritical political theologians! What is the true provenance of this multiplexity of lies by our politicians?

Let Akufo-Addo and his brain trust own Buhari’s moral and political weaknesses also:

That is what will ensure or guarantee his totality as a human being worthy of emulation, but with his Ménière’s disease under tight control, for, after all, the country is already under a heavy disease burden of amoral leadership—leadership failure.

Let us bring back the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum to rule the country! This is no laughing matter!

Nkrumah’s empty coffin will do a better job than these groveling androids we have as politicians.

Well, anyone who doubts the audacity of our outrageous claim should prove us wrong!

REFERENCE

Ghanaweb. “Age Takes Toll On Buhari As Vice President Takes Over.” June 5, 2016.