The President, John Evan Atta Mills, has responded to critics who say he is sick, challenging them to come and examine him if they truly believe he is not in the best of health.
Since the heat of the 2008 presidential and parliamentary electioneering campaign, many people across the political divide believed that then candidate Mills was sick. The debate about his health status has continued two years after being elected into office.
The Information Ministry recently came out to explain why the palms of the president are darkening, saying it was a reaction to a drug the president has been taking and that there was no cause for alarm. But the debate has persisted.
Answering questions posed by senior media practitioners on Friday to mark his two years in office, President was blunt on his health status after Emefa of X FM quizzed him about the true state of his health.
In response the President said: “Madam, I didn’t know that there were so many doctors in the media, some are able to examine me from 2 miles away, they must have some long stethoscopes.
“…If I have had any problem it is with my sinus, those who knew me seven years ago and know me now would realise that my tone is a bit nasal and therefore all kinds of illnesses have been cooked down to Atta Mills.”
He continued, “ …Here is Atta Mills, anyone who wants to examine me can come, but when you do that you have to pay a fee for it.”
President Mills asked the press, “…How many of us here can say with full authority that come a week he will be alive?”
“ I don’t claim any special qualities,” he admitted, adding “ I am susceptible to all illnesses that[afflict] human flesh.”
He concluded that God is his physician “and so long as I live I have hope.”
Story by Dorcas Efe Mensah