NADAA @76: Who Would Ever Want To Be King?

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Lights. Camera. Showtime.

But the ‘Showboy’ appeared in no mood to thrill. The tidings he bore weren’t glad; his shirt for the occasion, all teary, seemed to hint at that much.

Two days before his 76th birthday — not that he was counting, for once – H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana’s head of state, stood in the palatial Flagstaff House, surrounded by luxury but enjoying little of it. Before him was a microphone, clearly seen, but just above might have dangled an invisible sword of the sort that — swinging and spinning downwards ever so slightly — frightened poor Damocles off Dionysius’ throne and out of Cicero’s famous anecdote.

Never mind the address was likely pre-recorded — in which case Akufo-Addo was watching like us all, or was already tucked in and willing sleep into the space taken up by his gnawing preoccupations — for the delay did little to ease the tension of the moment or lighten the weight of what followed: Accra and Kumasi, Ghana’s biggest cities, were to be locked down for the next two weeks, effective March 30. Tema, also very vital to Ghana’s economy by virtue of its famous harbour, would suffer same.

There . . .

The words had come out, but not even the president could guarantee that his orders wouldn’t come without harsh consequences. Akufo-Addo justified it well, though, with a statement that would endear him to many that night, and which was roundly applauded the next morning.

Well-said and well-played, but the decision hadn’t been as simple as that nicely crafted quote suggests. Surely, brother hadn’t signed up for this. And, really, who would have thought that Ghana, not long after turning a grand old 63, would be battling — like the rest of the world — to escape the clutches of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a plague that has notoriously little mercy on the aged?

It was one of those calls: damned if you do, damned if you don’t . . . and just as damned while you contemplate either damnation. Akufo-Addo, reasonably, took a while to arrive at a choice, as his concession to the leaders of Ghana’s labour force a day earlier indicated.

“If you lock down Accra, what are the consequences? If we lock down the country, what are the consequences?” he quizzed, rhetorically.

“A responsible government is required to look at all this before decisions are made and that is the exercise on which we are currently engaged.”

Ultimately, though, a lockdown of those cities — and, possibly, a few more, should COVID-19 strike Ghana any harder — seemed the inevitable option; many, from physicians to self-styled social media ‘savants’, had been calling for it.

For those in affected territory, it would mean complying with an enforced stay-at-home order; elsewhere, citizens are urged to do same voluntarily, lest the same fate is imposed at some point in Ghana’s fight against the pandemic.

Sunday brought up Akufo-Addo’s birthday and, in blowing out the candles lit on his cake, he must have delivered a sigh — of relief or of despair, only he could tell. Lockdown or not, the worst isn’t yet over; by October 2020, though, it should. And when, on the 9th day of that 10th month, British rapper of Ghanaian roots, Stormzy, makes the Ghana stop of his ‘Heavy Is The Head’ global tour, Akufo-Addo — though I don’t take him for a grime fan — might observe quietly and nod in approval, with heaviness.

That would be almost two months to the next presidential elections, the fourth of his political career, and Akufo-Addo would probably be on the campaign trail with every ounce of strength he’d have left after the last — and the next — few weeks’ exertions.

All of which leaves me wondering, as did another British artiste in his world-renowned band’s Grammy-winning song:

“Oh, who would ever want to be king?”

Well, definitely not me.
You?

NY Frimpong — Daily Mail GH