A video footage capturing President Akufo-Addo sleeping during what appears to be a meeting of his peers at the African Union (AU) is going viral on social media and re-igniting the debate about the health of the President.
In the video, the President is seen in the chair, carved in the style of a traditional Ghanaian royal seat of state, behind a lady who was addressing an audience.
Then the Ghanaian leader started dozing off, an action that led to interest from media cameras covering the event. A zoom-in by one of the lenses showed that President Akufo-Addo who was in a black mask had indeed shut his eyes and snoozed off.
At this stage, the source of the video clip who spoke in an accent that sounds East African, is heard expressing shock in the background.
President Akufo-Addo is 77 years old and it appears his sleeping bouts is caused by the vagaries of the job.
Meanwhile, unlike in previous scenarios in which the President slept at public functions, in this case, even the chair in which he is seen sleeping has become a source of commentary because it is believed that the President took it along with him from Ghana.
In other words, the President’s strange practice in which he began carrying along his personal chair on tours to parts of the country, especially the Volta Region, has been escalated to his journeys abroad.
In the build-up to the 2020 elections, when Mr. Akufo-Addo started carrying a chair along with him on his journeys, his action was interpreted as superstition borne out of paranoia.
It was believed that he was acting that way because he probably had received instructions from spiritual aides around him, especially Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah, a self-styled “prophet” who has made a name for himself as the President’s personal seer.
