The Minority in Parliament has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to immediately correct an anomaly on the bust of former President John Evans Atta-Mills at the newly renovated Asomdwee Park.
The side argued it is inappropriate that the man in whose honour the bust was erected does not have his name on it but rather that of President Akufo-Addo and his associate, Koku Anyidoho.
Addressing the media in Parliament on Monday, July 25, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu expressed disappointment and cited Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s bust as an example.
He said, “Visit President Nkrumah’s Mausoleum you will see his bust. It says, ‘Kwame Nkrumah 1909 as he lived till when he passed on.”
“If you go to that of Professor John Evans Atta Mills, our respected late President, beneath the bust is not his name. It says ‘unveiled by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and that is not Professor Mills’ name. We find that incredibly unacceptable and offensive. And you find reference to the President of the Republic unveiling it and assisted by Koku Anyidoho.”
“Everywhere in the world, those who have visited the Lincoln Memorial in the United States… It’s eternal memory that you put his name there so that visitors will know this is John Evens Atta Mills, the 3rd President of the 4th Republic who passed on in public service serving Ghana as its President and not who has altered his final sleeping place or who sponsored it.”
According to Haruna Iddrisu, he would have just walked over to Asomdwee Park and changed the inscription underneath the bust himself but for the peaceful nature of Professor Atta-Mills.
“That will not be in his honour. He preached peace and I learned this from him. Other than that ordinarily we just walk from here and take it off and then put it what is appropriate, so persons who visit the Asomdwee Park would know that is the final resting place of the late John Evans Atta Mills, President of the country who passed on in office, and to his eternal memory this bust was put in place.”
“How then can any of you explain that just beneath the bust, you see who unveiled it and who sponsored or who supported it? That is not his name.”
“And for the unsuspecting people somebody may even come and then take a picture and it will be referred to as ‘Unveiled by.”
The office of the former President, the Minority leader said, is an institutional office and goes beyond the persona of John Evans Atta-Mills and so long as Ghana’s democracy endures, more former Presidents would be produced but stressed they want Atta-Mills to be honoured because he deserves it.
He condemned what he said is an attempt to sow seeds of conflict and to further hurt a grieving family over the loss of a statesman of unparalleled structure in Ghana’s 4th Republic.
“Professor Mills exemplified humility, modesty, judgment and humanness and we should do well to honour him and stop dragging his name… Is the former President resting in peace?”
He urged President Akufo-Addo and Koku Anyidoho to therefore do the appropriate thing and have the name of the former President on his bust.
Listen to the Minority leader: