Why The Health Of Presidential Candidates Matters

 By Dan Onwukwe

Every election has a story. So is every person who offers himself or herself to high public office such as the presidency. It’s not for nothing. The presidency is the hardest job anybody can give his brain. The enormous responsibilities placed on the shoulder of a President are so huge that the occupant of the office should have a sound mind, among other attributes. His health status should not be a matter of conjectures.

That’s why the counsel, ‘if you can’t stand the heat, don’t get close to the kitchen’, is very instructive. It is also because, to paraphrase Gerald R. Ford (38th U.S. President) the ‘presidency is not a prize to be won, but a duty to be done ‘. The office is not an entitlement, but a trust. It means using great power for great purposes for the country and its citizens. As a result of all of this, the question is: do voters actually care about the health status of the Presidential candidates? The answer is emphatically yes! That is why physicians and neuroscientists(who may not necessarily be medical doctors) but who focus on the brain and its impact on behaviour and cognitive functions  speak candidly about the need to have candidates competing for the highest office in the land to be in the best possible health status. They also speak shockingly what happens when an infirmed person becomes the leader of his nation.  Ignoring this could pose incalculable harm not only in ability of the President to govern, but imperil the country from moving in the right direction. The consequences are too many to bear. That’s why we need to heed the wisdom of brilliant tutors which says, "never let the same snake bite you twice”.     

                                                            

This is a counsel that has served some democracies well. But, time and again,  Nigeria has failed to heed this warning. The result had been telling, not once, but twice. It could happen the third time because, since the present democratic dispensation began in 1999, the failure of Presidential candidates who later became Presidents to disclose their health status had come back to haunt us. Let’s take two cases. Until he died in office on May 5, 2010, President Umaru Yar’Adua  was hampered by chronic illness that was later diagnosed as pericarditis(a serious skin infection)that he never disclosed. His handlers said his health status was his private affair. Yar’Adua was perhaps a decent man, but it goes beyond being a moral, decent man to function effectively in the presidency. 

 

As it became clear later, his ill- health impeded his effectiveness. He couldn’t seize the opportunity that time and circumstance afforded him with grace to shape his presidency and give Nigeria a new direction and a sense of purpose. No sane person should not offer empathy for the late President. But his illness was a kill-joy That was essentially why he was a failure, a sort of “waka just pass” President. He did not know when to invoke the prestige of the presidency and when to hold it in reserve. Until his eventual death, others took decisions on his behalf. Where Nigeria is today, not measuring up on the leadership scale,  was partly the outcome of that error of not disclosing the exact health status of Yar’adua before he became president.  President Muhammadu Buhari followed the same sad trajectory of non-disclosure of his medical history. As of August 2021, the President spent a total of 200 days in the United Kingdom on medical treatment. The underwhelming performance of his administration has a lot to do with lack of mental alertness. Agreed anybody can be sick, but it matters as a public officeholder.    

             

Have we learnt anything and forgotten everything? History could be repeating itself for those who don’t learn from the lessons of history.  For sometime now, the health status of the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been a major talking point. Since last year, he has been in and out of the country on medical treatment. His publicists are playing poppycock with it. His jetting off and back before nightfall as he did last Thursday after spending 12 days in UK is fuelling more concerns about his health and his preparedness for the task ahead. It’s unfortunate that everything about Tinubu’s health is opaque and a top secret. Sometimes, even his whereabouts. 

It’s  all clever spin to deceive the Nigerian public. It’s not a good campaign strategy. Neither is it  a good sign for the APC. The African Editor of The Economist Magazine, Jonathan Rosenthal said that much last week. Perhaps nobody knows how to spin a story better than Tinubu and his handlers. Before he came back, we were entertained with a video photo shoot of him working on a spin bike to dispel rumours of his death, or withdrawal from the presidential  campaigns. “This is the reality”, he said, “I am strong, I’m healthy and READY to serve Nigeria from Day One”. Is he really strong and healthy? Time will tell.        

However, this is the reality. Nigerians should be curious about the health of anyone who has offered himself for leadership position. This is the case in the United States and elsewhere. And it has served them well. Any sign of illness or frailty should be subjected to intense public scrutiny. For example, the U.S. presidency has a checkered history with truth and disclosure when it comes to infirmity and maladies. Time is gone when candidates are not required by law to disclose their medical history. Full disclosure will help assuage any concerns voters might have that could impede the ability of a candidate to fulfill his ability and responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief should he be elected President. Therefore, concealing one’s health status should no longer be tolerated.  

It’s important to recall two incidents in the U.S in the early 1990s that played a key role in causing the media and the general public to pay close attention to the health of Presidential candidates. First was the case of Senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts. He had a stomach cancer. He had previously survived a bout with non-hodgkin’s Lymphoma in the mid 1980s. He contested the Democratic primaries which Bill Clinton won. Tsongas dropped out. He died in 1997. In 1996 , Clinton and Bob Dole, the Republican candidate released their medical records and letters from their physicians.  

Dole went a step further by asking his personal physician to make himself available for interviews with the media. George W.Bush, Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain and Barack Obama, all did the same. McCain at the time was 72  in 2008. He previously had skin cancer, but he had reporters to peruse 1,200 pages of his medical history for hours. Obama also released a letter from his personal physician and the result of an annual physical examination in 2014. The doctor’s report says: “All clinical data indicate that the President( Obama) is currently very healthy and that he will remain so for the duration of his presidency”. 

That’s how it should be. Can Tinubu do same requesting his physicians in the UK to make his medical record available? What about Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, and the other presidential candidates? Being young is also not a proof that a candidate is healthy. President John F. Kennedy despite his young age of 43 when he became President, had scarlet fever and Addison’s disease, a hyperi-pigmention of the skin which was concealed from the public. One is not saying that if a presidential candidate has an illness that it should be a disqualifying factor provided that illness can be effectively cured. The point here is to avoid the horrible experience that we had with Yar’adua and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari. The task ahead is so much for the incoming President that Nigeria cannot afford to see him spend long days in foreign country, receiving medical treatment at public expense.

*Onwukwe is a commentator on public issues