Should We Talk About Our “Candidates” Health Cards?

Perhaps it’s not fair. We need to talk about policies. Right? Our debates should be on way forward after 50 plus years of walking towards the hard wind blowing debris and pedestrians. But may be we live in different times. We no longer have audiences but rather news breakers and news crackers. It’s 2015 and we going to talk about everything. Our ears are tuned to catch the whispers on the wind and all that is said.

For presidential candidate hopeful Edward Lowassa, conversations are beyond policies. Like the kind of wind that roars in your ears after you’ve gone inside, his health keeps coming on as a topic. When folks aren’t getting the grind on policies and plans, they hit below belt. He is not healthy. Mmmh. Why? Dr. Google or something?

The naysayers keep pushing for a President with a clean health card. Do they know something we all don’t know? May be. You always hear about Zambia and Malawi when this kind of conversation start jogging. Unfortunately, our neighbors to the South have had to bury their seating presidents. Should that worry all of us or force us to take cautious measures?

When it comes to Honorable Lowassa I think someone is putting gasoline on fire? I’d like to believe it’s his camp. Through social media we have seen couple of clips of the former PM running/ jogging. These videos couldn’t have come from innocent bystanders who are excited to see their “choice”. Somebody is on the mission to refute health rumors. Otherwise why didn’t we see the running/jogging video clips when Lowassa was the PM? Are we starting with a clean slate? A slight, watchful hesitation and a misty doubt.

May be that is how politics work nowadays. You hear something. You react. So dark out there. So dark and so forever. But when you look closely at the videos, some of them seems to be with too well controlled steadiness as if to conceal uneasiness. I’m just saying. That makes the videos as interesting as a washing machine manual. I know some of you wish I could park my tongue for a second. I understand.

All said and done I think health should be one of the key components of anyone vying for such a high office. That shouldn’t be playing God. You would like to know if your President is able to make sound decisions, right? If you have ever been sick [and I know you have] you know how your mind gets messed up when you can’t do some simple and normal stuff you usually do. Imagine if you were a President with all responsibilities of leading a nation. Take your time. Think about it.

So running is good. But that’s not enough. It shouldn’t steal the show. To suggest that one hit wonder kind of public appearances is all we need to get anyone a clean health card is wrong. We need be more serious. Let’s not be telling tales out of school. Let’s mean business