John Evans Fifii Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) the former Ghanaian politician who was President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2008 election.He was Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings, and stood unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He died 24 July 2012 at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. He is the first Ghanaian head of state to die in office.
Ghanaian President John Atta Mills was said to spread the wealth from Ghana’s newly discovered offshore oil fields, but his death came before the 68-year-old could finish his first term in this West African nation still held up as a model of democracy.
Ghanaian state-run television stations broke into their regular programming to announce the president’s death. Chief of Staff John Henry Martey Newman informed the nation about his death at a military hospital in the capital. The 37 Military Hospital was initially built during the second world war. The hospital mainly provided healthcare to the military. It has recently had a big expansion and caters for all kinds of cases. It now caters for the general public as well. No details were provided about the cause of death, but some news accounts said he had throat cancer. Vice President John Mahama was sworn in Tuesday to complete the last 5months of Mr. Mills’s term.
Chris Fomunyoh, the senior director for Africa for the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, said that Ghana’s democracy could weather the death of a president.
In other nations in West Africa, the death of a ruler usually spells a coup, as it did in Guinea after the 2008 death of longtime dictator Lansana Conte, and Togo, where the military seized power after the president’s death in 2005 to install his son.
Ghana, whose economy has been fueled by gold, cocoa and timber exports in the past, hopes to put its oil money to good use, mindful of how nearby Nigeria suffered through military dictatorships and widespread corruption over its oil wealth.
Mr. Mills even put up campaign posters of himself standing next to a cutout of Barack Obama in an effort to emphasize that he, too, stood for change.
In March, Mr. Mills traveled to the United States, where he met with President Obama. The Ghanaian leader also traveled to the United States in April as well, as rumors about his health began to circulate in Ghana. Opposition newspapers had recently reported that he was not well enough to run for a second term.
Mr. Mills also served as vice president under Jerry Rawlings, a coup leader who was later elected president by popular vote and surprised the world by stepping down after losing the 2000 election.
John Evans Atta Mills was born July 21, 1944, in Tarkwa, Ghana. He spent much of his career teaching at the University of Ghana. He earned a doctorate from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies before becoming a Fulbright scholar at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
Survivors include his wife, the former Ernestina Naadu, and a son.