John Evans Atta Mills, (born July 21, 1944, Tarkwa, Ghana—died July 24, 2012,
Accra, Ghana), Ghanaian politician and scholar who served as president of Ghana
(2009–12).
After secondary school, Mills studied law at the University of Ghana (LL.B., 1967),
the London School of Economics and Political Science (LL.M., 1968), and the
University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, completing his Ph.D.
dissertation (1971) on taxation and economic development. On his return to Ghana,
he taught law at the University of Ghana, where he remained for some 25 years.
He also served on numerous boards and committees, occasionally acted as a visiting
professor in the United States and the Netherlands, and published extensively on
taxation, including the Report of the Tax Review Commission, Ghana (1977).
Mills eventually left academia to establish a distinguished career in public service.
Appointed in 1988 as acting commissioner of Ghana’s Internal Revenue Service, he
eventually became (1993) substantive commissioner. He stood as Pres. Jerry
Rawlings’s running mate under the banner of the National Democratic Congress
(NDC) in the 1996 elections. They were victorious, and Mills took office on January
7, 1997, as vice president, a post he held until 2001. Mills was the NDC candidate
for the presidency in the 2000 and 2004 elections, but he was defeated by John
Kofi Agyekum Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
During his first two presidential campaigns, Mills had been roundly criticized for
statements that if elected he would consult with Rawlings. When Mills was again
the NDC candidate for the presidency in 2008, he distanced himself from his
former mentor and campaigned on the slogan “I believe in Ghana.” Self-described
as a social democrat who believed in the concept of social welfare espoused by
Kwame Nkrumah (independent Ghana’s first leader), Mills embraced a political
platform that was more comprehensive and less divisive than that of either
Nkrumah or Rawlings. Mills’s persistence and determination paid off when he won
the 2008 presidential poll, defeating the NPP’s candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa
Akufo-Addo, by a narrow margin (50.23–49.77 percent). The election marked the
second time in Ghana’s history that one legitimately elected leader had handed
over power to another. It demonstrated that, after an era of coups and
dictatorship (1966–92), democracy had been established and reinforced in the
western African country, despite occasional eruptions of ethnic conflict and
political tension.
On January 7, 2009, Mills was officially sworn in as president of Ghana. After his
inauguration he set about to improve the socioeconomic situation of ordinary
Ghanaians, who ranked among the world’s poorest people, with an average daily
income of $2.32, a 60 percent literacy rate, and 10 percent unemployment
deources. In his first State of the Nation address on February 19, 2009, Mills
announced an austerity program, promising steep cuts in government spending,
beginning with cutbacks in wages and a review of the government’s recent order of
two presidential jets. He also instituted policies to eliminate four cabinet
ministries and reduced the size of the presidential convoy. Mills presided over the
commencement of the country’s first commercial oil production in late 2010 and
promised that the government would spend the newfound oil revenue responsibly.
In July 2011 the NDC selected Mills to be the party’s candidate in the 2012
presidential elections; however, he died five months before the elections were to
be held.spite the country’s potentially valuable natural resources
Mills died on 24 July 2012 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra,[55] three days
after his 68th birthday.[56] Though the cause of death was not immediately
released, he had been suffering from throat cancer and had recently been to the
US for medical reasons.[55][57] Announcing his death, his office noted that he
died hours after being taken ill,[58] but a presidential aide said that he had
complained of pains the day prior to his death. However, Mills' brother, Dr. Cadman
Mills later disclosed during the graveside service that he had died from
complications of a massive hemorrhagic stroke resulting from brain
aneurysm.[59][60][61] According to the BBC, his voice had degenerated in the
previous few months.[57] Former minister Elizabeth Ohene said that as a result of
previous false reports of his death, she had not believed initial claims of his actual
death. "For the past three or four years, there's been news he's been unwell and
rumours of his death – twice – and he appeared with grim humour to say they were
exaggerated, insisting he was well."[55] His vice president John Dramani Mahama
was sworn in at about 20:00 GMT on the same day. In accordance with Ghana's
constitution, Mahama's tenure expired at the same time Mills' was due to end, by
the end of the year just prior to an election,[62] in which he was due to run.[63]
Mahama said upon being inaugurated in parliament:
This is the saddest day in our nation's history. Tears have engulfed our nation and
we are deeply saddened and distraught. I never imagined that one day that it would
place our nation in such a difficult circumstance. I'm personally devastated, I've
lost a father, I've lost a friend, I've lost a mentor and a senior comrade. Ghana is
united in grief at this time for our departed president.[39]
State funeral[edit]
Atta Mills' gravestone at the Asomdwee Park, Accra in 2023
From 8–10 August, his body lay in state, and Ghanaian government officials, civil
society, traditional leaders, the clergy, the general public and dignitaries such as
Côte d'Ivoire's Alassane Ouattara, Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nigeria's
Goodluck Jonathan and Senegal's Macky Sall paid their last respects. Within this
period, a two-night vigil was also held at the forecourt of the State House for
cultural and musical performances such as traditional dirges, plays and tribute
reading. Thousands streamed into the State House to pay their last respects to
Mills as he lay in state with some mourners queuing for hours, many of them wailing
with grief, in lines up to 10 km (6 miles) long per press reports.[64] The body was
then taken by a military cortege from the State House parliamentary complex to
the Independence Square for the funerary services which was attended by 18
African Heads of State, 5 vice-presidents, United States Secretary of State,
Hillary Clinton, former United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, president of
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Peter Turkson,
Secretary-General of African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, Mohamed
Ibn Chambas and several other international envoys. In all, there were 67 foreign
delegations represented at the funeral.[65] In addition to the over 50,000 people
who gathered for the ceremony, his funeral was also attended by Benin's Thomas
Boni Yayi, who said of Mills that he was "passionate about peace in Africa and in
the region," as well as Togo's Faure Gnassingbe, who said "[Mills] was like a brother
to me. I will surely miss him."[66]
Ahead of religious ceremonies on Friday morning, the officially declared national
day of mourning, a helicopter hovered over the area dropping leaflets reading: We
want peaceful elections in 2012.[67] The funeral ended with the release of a
hundred white doves into the air to signify the peaceful nature of the departed
leader.[67]
After the funeral service, the president's body was taken on a military procession
through some principal streets of the Ghanaian capital, Accra and then for burial in
a newly created presidential mausoleum located in the northern part (Asomdwee
Park) of a bird sanctuary, Geese Park renamed along the Marine Drive and next to
the old seat of government, the 17th-century Fort Christiansborg, (also known as
Osu Castle), which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean's Gulf of Guinea.[68] As the
sitting Commander-in-Chief, Mills was accorded full military honours, steeped in
distinct and elaborate traditions, including a slow march by the Ghana Army, a
flypast of Ghana Air Force jets ejecting plumes of smoke in the national colours of
red, gold and green, with the Ghana Navy ships also performing ceremonial
manoeuvres on the shoreline behind the Independence Square and a 21-gun salute
accompanying the playing of the bugle call, Sunset and the Christian hymn, Abide
with Me (Eventide) synchronized with the sounding of the Last Post by military
buglers after the casket had been lowered into the grave.[69] Approximately 700
domestic and foreign media outlets received accreditation from the Ghanaian
Ministry of Information to cover the event.[70] An estimated 20–25 million
television and online or web audience watched the three-day funeral ceremonies.
The state funeral for the late president was most likely the largest gathering of
people in one place at a single public event in recent or modern Ghanaian history.