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Opinions of Thursday, 25 January 2018

Columnist: Michael Jarvis Bokor

Any update on Bawumia's status?

Dr Bawumia is in the UK on a medical leave Dr Bawumia is in the UK on a medical leave

Folks, if there is anything certain about the incompetence of this Akufo-Addo administration and its sordid manner of handling national affairs, what is happening to the Vice President (Bawumia) testifies to it.

Forget about all the instances of flip-flopping. Focus on the confusion surrounding information dissemination about Bawumia's ailment.

Eugene Arhin (who shouldn't have been retained at the Communications unit of the Presidency because of the humiliating plagiarism problem he caused for Akufo-Addo and Ghana, the first of its kind at the inauguration of an in-coming President in our time) issued a press release to announce what had befallen Bawumia.

Follow-up official messages deceived the public that Bawumia was examined by his doctors and released to return home and be with his family.

The grapevine had it to the contrary and that Bawumia's condition wasn't as "simple" as the official communication presented it. Tongues wagged that he had been struck down with a "mild stroke" and was to be flown out of the country that very night.

Messages from the Presidency discounted such claims. Not long thereafter, an official statement signed by the Chief of Staff confirmed that Bawumia had already been flown to London on a "medical leave" (Whatever that terminology means to the Akufo-Addo administration didn't take long to turn into linguistic gymnastics when it got converted to "rest").

And then, all hell broke loose with the wantonness and abject incompetence in information handling and dissemination about Bawumia's fate.

The incompetent and misguided Eugene Arhin denied that an official statement on Bawumia's being flown to London had come from the Presidency only for matters to thicken and expose his mischief. He is now mute. Such a dunce!!

The Minister of MisInformation (Mustapha Hamid) dirtied the stream with his senseless comment that Bawumia was flown abroad to rest or recuperate because he couldn't do so in Ghana if his relatives "trooped" into his residence to interact with him. Madness to the highest degree. Another unthinking albatross on the tax-payer's neck!!

Right in the midst of it all, we heard them say that Bawumia would return to Ghana on Tuesday, January 23. Huh? As my Ewe proverb has it, it is unwise to burn down the hut of a liar.

We are now entering Thursday, January 25, without any sign of Bawumia's return to Ghana. Or any update on his status. It seems officialdom has shut its doors on the matter, even as Akufo-Addo and his inner circle behave as if Bawumia's sad fate is none of their business. Not surprising.

No one is saying anything to update us on his circumstances. Granted the import of Akufo-Addo's plagiarized inaugural address that we shouldn't be spectators but citizens, we are concerned at the government's manipulation of the situation and attempt to play it fast on the intelligence of Ghanaians and lovers of Bawumia worldwide. What is happening?

What is Bawumia suffering from? When will he return to Ghana? Interestingly, his unfaithful wife (Samira) seems to have lost her "mojo". She is suddenly dumb. No surprise.

There is so much buzzing around to deepen worries, suspicions, and apprehensions. Images of high-spiritedness in the Asante-Akim mafia now in power speak volumes.

What is happening to Bawumia? When will he come home? The tax payer wants to know!!