Stress 'vis-à-vis' Ageing

The ageing of Presidents

President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete has commented more than once about the loneliness of the office of the President. He said once you are President, you are all alone and when you meet presidential staff during working hours, the answers that you get when you try to initiate a discussion is always ``Yes, Mr President.``

The incumbent President of the United Republic of Tanzania, now in his third year in power, still appears healthy and strong.

However, there is no doubt that the rigours of office, endless functions and state dinners, loss of friends and the weight of sensitive issues are having an impact on him.

A worried State House aide once confided: ``This President never rests. He has no weekends. He is always busy, meeting people until midnight.``

When he stepped into the conference hall at State House for his first press conference, a smiling, youthful president that he was, literally gliding as he walked, appeared ten years younger than his calendar age.

At the moment, the youthful look is somehow sustained, but there is less and less of the constant, natural smile that is his trade mark. At times, the smile appears a little bit official.

When you watch him closely, he is getting more and more of an elder, and his facial expression sometimes betrays the burdens of high office that he always carries.

Founder President Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, when discouraging people not to rush to occupy the hot seat of power at State House, said:

``The State House is not a place to rush to. You have to pity the person who occupies that office because of its immense burdens.

When you are driven around, you see a lot of hungry people, whom you do not know how you can help.``

The aging of presidents has become the topic of the day in the United States, when Dr. Michael Roizen, founder of www.realage.com, stated that presidents can age at a rate of two years for every year they are in office.

An AFP dossier on the matter reads as follows: ``As one of the world`s most powerful and influential positions, the American presidency comes with a lot of control and prestige - but it also can bring premature aging.``

Talking about Bill Clinton, the report said: ``When he came into office, his real age was about six years younger than his calendar age.

When he finished, he was about 10 years older than his calendar age, and he had a bad heart.``

On George W. Bush, it stated: ``The last medical information we have on him is from March or April, but from what we can see, he was aging at a rate of two years for every one.

``Remember, he had a good exercise program, just as Barack Obama does, but the stress still takes its toll.``

Going back to African presidents, it is not easy to access to their health records, far less to know if they ever get sick.

There is a story concerning Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni (62), who celebrated his 23 years in office last month. Two years ago, he turned up for a meeting with President Kibaki in official dress but wearing sandals and socks.

The photo that appeared in the local Ugandan press raised question about this uncoordinated dress. The nearest speculation was that his foot had a problem but there was no official explanation about it.

Others argued that it wasn`t the first time the president did that to high profile guests, ruling out the possibility of any sickness.

However, there were those who suspected that whatever the problem was, it was related to ageing.

Several Dar es Salaam residents, who were invited to comment on the matter, generally agreed that the burden of the Presidency is unlike any other job.

However, Magesa Beno, (25) a University student, had different views. He said: ``Much as a President has a tough job, it does not reach a point whereby he can lose his weight because of workload. The president is assisted by advisers who give him a helping hand.``

Benno added: ``A president who leads a country with no political turmoil has nothing to worry about. How can his health deteriorate?

I really do not know why presidents should age quickly. Presidents should appear younger than their actual age.``

On the other hand, Macha Joseph (27), a marketing officer, commented: ``A president is full of stress because of the duties he has to attend to.

He has to look after all the officers under him. Sometimes, he becomes unpopular for mistakes committed by his subordinates, while others do not deliver to his level of satisfaction``

Joseph added that a district commissioner who recently spanked teachers in Bukoba ``could cause a president to run mad.``

“A crumbling economy is enough to make the president sorrowful. When the oil prices go up, his blood pressure goes up with the prices.

The most difficult thing is how to please his countrymen whenever natural and non-natural calamities occur,`` Joseph said, adding that acute shortage of food could upset the physical and psychological wellbeing of a president.

``Sometimes, he has to part with his friends on matters of principle. Do you think it is easy for President Kikwete to see senior people he knows languishing in remand prison?``

Another commentator, Amos Raimos (25), said a president had many responsibilities which could cause his health to deteriorate. ``When a country is at war, it is the president of that particular country who bears responsibility. In the first place, he is the one with the power to declare war.``

Rashid Gotta of Mwenge said: ``The opposition and NGOs may at times speak bad things about a particular country`s administration to the outside world thus smear a country`s democratic credentials abroad.

It takes a long time for a tarnished image of a country to come back to normal. A president has to stomach all such occurrences,`` he said.

Raymond Mtoha (24), an educational centre executive, had this to say: “There are times when the President’s orders are not implemented.

That could upset him.
“The current spate of albino killings could make a president go mad. The killings have smeared Tanzania’s human rights image.

How to normalize the situation is all vested in the hands of his administration.

He has to answer questions about the situation whenever he travels abroad. All these are a headache to a committed president like Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete.``

He added that scandals like those of EPA were enough to make a president become crazy.

Raymond Kichenje told The Guardian that he sympathized with presidents of developing countries like Tanzania. ``It is better for one to be a president of developed country than to be of a developing country,`` Kichenje said.

He added that it was very difficult to administer people in a poverty stricken country. ``In developing countries, everyone has a problem and thinks it is the president who is the cause of his or her misery.

In a country like ours, one can go to see the president just because he is not assured of his next meal.``

SOURCE: Guardian,
2009-02-26 11:03:54
By Bernard Mapalala and Lucas Lukumbo