A Political Science lecturer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) who is believed to be an extension of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the university, has alerted Ghanaians voters to the responsibility of ensuring that the country�s Presidency is not risked with a deadwood.
Mr. Kwesi Amakye, who is on record to have warned that Ghanaians would not need a Mugabe on their hands in 2016, has implied that an impending NPP mistake of making Akufo-Addo a Presidential candidate would need to be corrected by Ghanaian voters.
�Ghanaians should come out with a strong case on this issue (old age), so much so that in future, people who get near 70 will advise themselves and will not even think of presenting themselves for the highest office of the land,� he said.
In an interview on Radio Gold over the weekend, Mr. Amakye also indicated that the fact that the NPP is considering Akufo-Addo as a Presidential candidate at all is an indication of the party�s contamination with political mediocrity, which is a peculiar symptom of the Third World.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the leading candidate in NPP�s coming Presidential Primary, will be 72-years-old in 2016, when Ghana�s next Presidential elections would be held.
If he gets elected, he would make history as the oldest ever to ascend the Presidency.
But Kwasi Amakye, who is a popular political science lecturer with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, believes that the prospect of a 72 year-old wearing the thinking cup of the whole country is a scary thought.
�Age takes away from people, naturally, their ability to do critical analysis and come to conclusions and on the basis of which decisions are taken,� Mr. Amakye said.
Implying that old age naturally inches human beings away from proper mental functionality, Mr. Amakye contended that putting the Presidency in the hands of a 72-year-old commander in chief of the armed forces, who would have the power to declare war, could prove disastrous.
Even in his younger days, Akufo-Addo has been known to have sloganeered �All-Die-Be-Die� and the ethnocentrically repulsive, �Yen Akan Fuor Die� as his campaign mantra.
Kwesi Amakye believes that Ghanaians cannot afford a gamble of the Presidency with an old hog who might be battling mid-life crises with all the attendant side problems, including forgetfulness, temper tantrums and in some cases downright senility.
More specifically, he hinted that it was dangerous to make someone in the twilight of his life President because age has direct correlation on a person�s health.
He said, people, including himself, who knew late President Mills at the University of Ghana before he became President, knew that he was a strong man, in terms of sense of purpose and will.
�We did not see that of him in office,� he asserted.
Kwesi Amakye dismissed the popular reasoning that age brings maturity, saying it is an anachronism that is only relevant in the Third World where political mediocrity is more the rule than the exception.
In the developed world, he said, the age bracket for Presidential materials is between 40 years and 50 years.
He said the prospect of an Akufo-Addo contesting on the NPP�s ticket may be bright, but then the voting public has responsibility to teach politicians a lesson that when they are too old the right thing to do is to stay away from the Presidency.
He said the country did not necessarily need to amend its constitution to sift out people who are too old from trying to become presidents, but that the voting public can vote in a way that establishes an informal code that �punishes� mean old power-lusting senior citizens.
�So that in future when somebody wants to present himself (for the Presidency) he will think twice,� he said.
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