The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has been urged to, with immediate effect, take steps at rectifying an “offensive” anomaly on the new state bust unveiled in honour of the late President Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
Speaking to the press at parliament on Monday, July 25, 2022, ahead of the presentation of the 2022 Mid-Year Budget by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, the Leader said it is unacceptable that the bust is without the names and descriptions of the former president.
“This press conference is to demand from President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Associates such as Koku Anyidoho to do what is right and appropriate and to remind them that the office of the former president is an institutional office: it goes beyond the persona of John Evans Atta Mills, so long as democracy endures, we will produce former presidents of our republic but we want his name to be honoured because he deserved honour.
“We know that God has honoured him but our disappointment is that those of you who have the opportunity to visit Asomdwee Park, the bust of him if you have doubts, go and visit President Nkrumah’s mausoleum, you’ll see his bust. It says Kwame Nkrumah, 1905, as he lived till when he passed on. If you go to that of John Evans Atta Mills, our respected president, beneath the bust is not his name.
“It is that ‘unveiled by Nana Addo Dankwa’ but that is not Prof. Mills’ name; that is not his name, and we find that incredibly unacceptable and offensive,” he said.
Haruna Iddrisu also indicated that had it not been for the peaceful attributes of the late John Evans Atta Mills, as well as all the good lessons he picked up from him, he would have personally walked to the Asomdwee Park (the final resting place of Mills) and torn off the current inscription on the bust.
“… and but for the peaceful nature of President Mills, I’d have just walked out from here and gone to change it myself but that would not be in honour of the late John Evans Atta Mills
“He preached peace and I learnt peace from him. Other than that, we’d just walk from here and take it off and then put what is appropriate,” he stated.
John Atta Mills died on July 24, 2012, becoming the first president in the country to have died in office.
He was buried in Accra at the Asomdwee Park, which has since seen a major upgrade amidst several controversies.
Upon his death, John Dramani Mahama took over as president.
