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Mills prized honour and virtue over rank and fortune

The late President JEA MillsProfessor Mills had an attractive and entirely unaffected modesty and self-deprecating humility, which belied his formidable intellect and hugely successful career in public service.

That surprised no one but himself. His quiet, calm, detached and impartial manner helped to shape his presidency, cut short by his untimely death.

Already one year has passed and in people’s memories his great achievements are almost overshadowed by his remarkable personal qualities: Candor as much as courtesy; wisdom as much as approachability; integrity as much as kindness; and last, but certainly not least, his old–fashioned goodness and tolerance.

For the Convention’s People Party (CPP), we reflect with gratitude on these qualities and beliefs as demonstrated in how President Mills took significant and far-reaching steps to honour Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah. He led the campaign to have the African Union (AU) declare September 21, 2009, Nkrumah’s 100th birthday, a day of celebrations in all African countries. Equally important, it was President Mills’s decision to have a yearlong centenary birthday celebration in Ghana.

The impact of these decisions has broadened the understanding of our youth on the contributions of Kwame Nkrumah. President Mills, also through an Executive Instrument declared Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday a statutory public holiday in Ghana. It was indeed President Mills himself who, once again, defied critics and backed the issuance of the new two Cedi note featuring a prominent image of Kwame Nkrumah.

His deep attachment to popular, democratic government was based on a great faith in the rationality of the people themselves. Like Abraham Lincoln, he believed in government “of the people, by the people, for the people”. He had no sympathy for negative campaigning that scars the political atmosphere and he never descended into the fray to score cheap political points - a temptation some politicians cannot resist. He was determined to appeal to voters’ reasoning and not their emotions; to their hopes not their fears; to their better selves, not their darker sides.

To him, the representatives of the people have to be scrupulously honest with them.

Ghanaians admired the common touch of a President who lacked airs and graces. His manner re-enforced his sense of ordinariness and this only increased their affection for him.

Clearly, Professor Mills prized honour and virtue above the external advantages of rank and fortune, values one year on, the people of Ghana should dwell on and perhaps emulate.

By Ivor Kobina Greenstreet

The writer is the General Secretary of the CPP.

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