Ghana's President John Atta Mills Dead at 68
July 24, 2012
by VOA News
Ghana's President John Atta Mills has died at the age of 68. The Ghanaian minister of information, Fritz Baffour, confirmed the president's death in a phone interview with VOA.
The official Ghana News Agency, quoting a statement from the office of the presidency, reports that Mills died Tuesday at a military hospital in the capital, Accra.
The statement said the president died a "sudden and untimely death," a few hours after falling ill.
There was no immediate word on the nature of his illness. Ghana's constitution calls for Vice President John Dramani Mahama to be sworn in as his replacement.
Mills oversaw a generally peaceful and prosperous time for his country during his one term in office.
He became the country's third democratically-elected president in 2009 after defeating ruling party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo in a run-off election that was hailed as a rare example of a peaceful transfer of power in Africa.
In July 2009, President Barack Obama visited Ghana and proclaimed the country a model for other African countries.
Eighteen months later, Mills turned the valves at a ceremony marking Ghana's new status as an oil-producing nation. The oil fueled economic growth of more than 16 percent in 2011, though analysts warned that oil production could have harmful effects, as it has in other African countries.
Mills was born July 21, 1944 in Ekumfi Otuam in Ghana's Central Region.
Before his political career, he was an accomplished scholar receiving both a bachelors and law degree from the University of Ghana, a doctorate from the University of London, and the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to Stanford University in the United States.
Mills served as Ghana's vice president during the administration of Jerry Rawlings from 1997 to 2000.
He had been nominated by the ruling party to run for president again in an election expected later this year.
He leaves behind a wife and a son.
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