Chambas Extols Mills’ Credentials …At Anniversary Lecture And Urges Mahama To Emulate Him

Date published: July 28, 2014

By Mohammed Awal (awalm19@gmail.com)

The Head of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operations in Darfur (UNAMID), Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has urged President John Dramani Mahama to adopt his predecessor’s strategic approach to governance, if the latter’s administration was to reverse the current challenges facing the economy.

In order to device a lasting solution to the “precarious state of the national economy,” Dr. Chambas advised that it was vital the John Mahama government “revisit the tested blueprint of success employed by Atta Mills.”

Delivering a lecture in Accra last week Thursday to celebrate the second anniversary of the passing on of President John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, the former Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States tasked President Mahama to come forth with prudent fiscal policies that would aid the speedy recovery of the Ghanaian economy.

President Atta Mills’ shrewdness and alertness to good governance saw macroeconomic fundamentals, including inflation and exchange rate, stabilise for the first time since the nineties, Dr. Chambas stated, with inflation figures dropping to single digit in 2010, from a high of 18.1% in 2008.

These were indicative of “prudent fiscal, monetary and austerity policy measures deliberately carved by the late President Mills to ensure that the economy was in a healthy state,” he pointed out. Again, under the stewardship of Mills, Ghana’s budget deficit was reduced to 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared to 14.5% of GDP in 2008, argued Dr. Chambas.

Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas also called on world leaders, especially African leaders, to emulate the almost immaculate lifestyle of the late President John Evans Atta Mills. “President Mills’ modesty, visionary leadership and commitment to democracy, human rights and abhorrence of violence are hallmarks of great leadership in our age,” he said, adding, “Even though short, Atta Mill’s Presidency provided the world with a unique insight into the sterling qualities of a modest and exemplary leader and statesman.”

Forgoing Victory for Peace
The man, Atta Mills, Dr. Chambas recounted, was prepared to curtail his presidential ambition prematurely during the 2008 elections for peace, when tensions were rife. Dr. Chambas, unfolding events as they occurred then, said: “The presidential poll of 28 December was on knife-edge. Nerves were frayed as tensions ran high, with less than a paper-thin margin of a few thousands votes separating Atta Mills and Nana Akufo-Addo. Ghana was on the brink!”

As then President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Chambas, in the company of the Nigerian National Security Advisor and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, embarked on a preventive diplomacy mission in Ghana. They engaged in a shuttle diplomacy, calling on then President Agyekum Kufuor, former President Rawlings, and Nana Akufo-Addo.

On arrival at the home of Captain Kojo Tsikata (rtd), where candidate Atta Mills chose to meet them, Dr. Chambas said he was taken aback by the atmosphere. Surrounded by Capt Tsikata, the late P.V. Obeng, Commander Assasie-Gyimah, Kwamena Awhoi, and a few other advisers, Prof. Mills was “the epitome of calm and serenity, seemingly unaffected by the chaos” in the city, narrated Dr. Chambas.

Welcoming them, Dr. Chambas said Atta Mills had a few but profound words to tell them: “I know I have won the elections, God willing. My victory, however, is not worth a drop of blood from any Ghanaian, no matter his or her affiliations. If the price for peace is my victory, I am prepared to forgo it.” President Mills died on Tuesday July 24, 2012 at the 37 Military Hospital, following a “massive stroke.” He is the first Ghanaian Head of State to have died in office.