Ghana is a truly stable African state

John Evans Atta Mills

Mobhare Matinyi, Washington DC. The Citizen, Thursday, 26 July 2012 21:55 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Sometime in January 2011, exactly two years after coming to office following the closest ever Ghanaian presidential election which was held in the preceding month, President John Evans Atta Mills was forced to deny rumours that he had been sick for over two years.  He however admitted that as a human being he is susceptible to all illnesses.

On Tuesday, three days after marking his 68th birthday, President Mills passed away at a military hospital in the nation’s capital, Accra after succumbing to throat cancer. Six hours later Vice President John Dramani Mahama, 53, was swiftly sworn-in as president with no signs of unsteadiness.

As is usually the case in many African countries, the government gave no details of the president’s death. The Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman broke the news through state-run news agencies GTV and TV3 saying: "It is with a heavy heart... that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana".

Speaking to the BBC, former Ghanaian president, Jerry Rawlings, said that the news was expected since the president had been ill for quite some time and added that it would have been wiser for him to have taken appropriate steps long ago rather than remain in office.

Evidently, as observed from his recent trip to the US to attend the G8 summit, Mills was sick and in fact could not attend every event that he was scheduled to appear at. This week upon his death the New York Times reported that he had been in the United States for eight days for medical treatment.

Prior to his death and apart from rumours, Ghanaians had already noticed two things in their leader’s health: his palms had darkened and his voice had become nasal. The government cleared the air regarding the palms suggesting that it was a reaction to a drug the president had taken but no one gave further details. 

When he spoke to the press in January 2011, President Mills said that sinusitis was to blame for the change in his voice and wondered when journalists had become medical doctors with the ability to examine him from two miles away. He then joked, “…Here is Atta Mills, anyone who wants to examine me can come, but when you do that you’ll have to pay a fee.”

In his concluding remarks Mills got smarter and asked: “…How many of us here can say with full authority that come a week they will be alive?” No one dared to raise a hand, and then Mills added wisely: “I don’t claim any special qualities. I am susceptible to all illnesses that (afflict) human flesh.” He then, concluded, “God is my physician and so long as I live I have hope.”

Certainly, these were not hopeful but puzzling words, and undoubtedly Ghanaian state officials knew the truth behind them.  So, what is it that forced the government of Ghana and the ruling party, the National Democratic Congress, to keep a sick man in office? Did he object to any suggestion to step down? What is more surprising is the fact that his party had recently nominated him to stand in the coming presidential elections! Why?

We may never find answers to the above questions, but one thing all Africans ought to be proud of is the smooth transfer of power from the deceased president to the vice president. In other African nations an incident such as this one could have sparked chaos, a coup, or even killings as was the case in Togo in 2005, Guinea in 2008 and Malawi in 2012.

In Togo the military had to seize power after the death of the president to ensure his son took over, while in Guinea a coup followed the death of a dictator. In Malawi things got more interesting as the cabinet and the governing party fruitlessly chose to disregard the constitution to prevent the vice president from ascending to power because she was from a different party.

The demise of Mills has come as another test to Ghana considering the fact that the country is a truly stable African democracy that has gotten rid of the madness that usually befalls African countries after presidential elections. Undeniably, in 2008 Mills got 50.23 per cent in the run-off, while his opponent from the ruling party, Nana Akufo-Addo got 49.77 per cent, a difference of 0.46 per cent yet no one experienced unrest or died.

How many African countries could survive mayhem in such a closely-contested election? African countries must be proud of Ghana and follow its example as it has proven to be politically mature with the ability to change the person at the helm of power peacefully regardless of any challenge, be it a small margin of victory or the death of a president.