Akufo-Addo's health confines him to Nima home

Leaked diplomatic correspondence from a major Western country with an embassy in Ghana has corroborated speculations that the reported age-related health problems of opposition leader; Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo may affect his 2016 presidential campaign.

Akufo-Addo will be 72 years when he leads the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the polls in December 2016, but his state of health has recently become a major talking point in public.

The diplomatic document quoted by news portal, TodayGhanaNews.com described Akufo-Addo as “weary and aged elite who has confined his campaign activities to his home [at his Nima Residence] and town hall meetings”.

The leaked cables, according to the news website, explained Akufo-Addo’s precarious situation saying he is; “a popular politician but old age and ill health have confined his campaign activities strictly to his official residence and town hall meetings.” Nana Addo’s chance of winning the 2016 presidential elections was therefore described as “a difficult task”.

The leaked cables, according to the news portal was intercepted from an unnamed western country which was assessing the political situation within countries in West Africa like Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Mali and Benin, who would be organizing their presidential elections in 2015 and 2016.

The leaked cables, according to TodayGhanaNews.com, predicted the possible outcome of the just ended Presidential elections in Nigeria; where it noted that former President would boost the chances of the opposition candidate- General Muhammadu Buhari, to win the race.

The cables also allegedly described the leader of Togo’s main opposition party, Mr. Jean-Pierre Fabre, the 62-year-old head of the National Alliance for Change (ANC), as “hardworking and intelligent but has no chance to win over the incumbent President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe.”

Earlier last week, the National Chairman of the NPP, Paul Afoko, fueled controversy when he was quoted as saying the Akufo-Addo’s 2016 campaign would be led by his running-mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

This reported statement by the party’s chairman is said to give weight to speculations that the Akufo-Addo 2016 campaign may not feature much of the aging presidential candidate.

Indeed, the Republic newspaper has gathered that the NPP hierarchy is currently in a dilemma as a section supports the idea of Dr. Bawumia leading the campaign while the other section composed mainly of party hawks, consider it a suicide move.

Dr. Amoaku Tuffour, a leading member of the party in an Interview with Radio Gold on Wednesday, appears to corroborate the views of our sources when he stated that Akufo-Addo “Know how effective Bawumia will be, of course... he knows how to pick people to work with him.”

Sources within the main opposition party have told this paper that the grand agenda of Akufo-Addo picking Dr. Bawumia for the third consecutive time as his running-mate was to gradually ease himself away into the background while Dr. Bawumia ‘runs the show’.

However, the potentially explosive experiment and the backlash from the party from this announcement forced Mr. Afoko to this week quickly issue a disclaimer, saying he was quoted out of context and that what he meant was that the NPP’s 2016 campaign is not going to be spearheaded by Dr. Bawumia alone, rather a long list of party brains including people who have challenged Akufo-Addo’s Presidency bid in the past.

“I mentioned that increasingly, the public will see an active participation by party stalwarts such as our Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, former President Kufuor, myself the National Chairman, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Kwabena Agyei Agyepong, Alan Kyerematen, Asamoah Boateng, Dr. Konadu Apraku, Francis Addai Nimoh, Joe Ghartey, amongst others in the campaign,” Mr. Afoko said in a rejoinder issued to the press early this week.

“As the Chairman of the NPP, it would be premature so to speak, for me to reveal our party campaign strategy at whim. I, therefore, entreat the general public and especially members of the NPP to disregard the said publication,” Mr Afoko retorted.