Investigate late President Mills’death
By Kofi Ayim
Late President Mills: Death needs to be investigated
As Ghana’s election approaches, the fast-paced political climate in the country makes it difficult to keep up with events. Critical issues that need national attention risk being ignored or swept under the carpet.
However, one thing that must not be left in the corridors of obscurity is the myth surrounding the death of the late President John Evans Atta Mills.
His death has not been treated with sufficient openness. The death of President Mills, like his health, has been shrouded in secrecy but Ghanaians deserve better. The government is probably assuming that it is better to forget it than to acquiesce to a demand for a thorough investigation. But the circumstances surrounding the death of a sitting president need to be probed for full disclosure to the people of Ghana who elected him.
The several twists given by government and party functionaries as to the time and mode of death only serve to throw dust in the eyes of Ghanaians.
The travesty in this case is inherent in the naiveté of those who believe that “this too shall pass”. Any refusal for thorough investigation wound be grounded in the misconception among those in government that the truth would never come out. This assumption would not pass muster; it will only postpone the demand of the masses for a public inquiry.
It must quickly be added here with a bold assertion that, the presupposition posited by government that the death of a sitting president is a family or private matter is a gross and outlandish attempt to foist jaundiced justice on Ghanaians in recent history. The presidency comes with privileges, in lieu of giving up some basic rights. You cannot have your cake and eat it once you assume the presidency. And once elected president one becomes public property. Again the president’s well-being is the economic liability of the people he serves and the people must not be kept in the dark.
The government must set up a non-partisan panel to unearth the truth. Malawi has taken the lead to investigate the death of its president. Definitely, President Mills died because he was not well. Those who saw him suspected that he was not well, but presidential staffers and he himself kept denying. It was known several times when he flew out of Ghana to receive medical attention in South Africa and the United States. On a few occasions, a government official would emerge to deny the seriousness of the president’s illness. And yet all the time, the Ghanaian people were not told the truth of the true state of the health of the head of state.
It is tempting to ask why the senior officials close to the president kept mum over the state of his health. Were ulterior motives part of the reasons for the cover-up and who stood most to benefit from the situation? Cover-ups in the corridors of power always engender rumors and suspicions, and that is what happened. The rumor mill never stopped churning out stories of the late president’s death.
Ghanaians are becoming more sophisticated and would no longer be railroaded by fiction and falsities. President Mahama must ensure that his late boss’ death is fully investigated to set the records straight
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