Atta Mills in Atlanta

As Atta Mills Focuses On Education …

Moves Campaign Notches Higher In Atlanta

• Brainstorms With Morehouse

• Touches On The Issue Of “Leadership” @ Bauder College

Obviously in pole position as far as the 2008 General Election is concerned, Presidential Candidate of the NDC, John Evans Atta Mills, continues to leave a lasting impression as he tours parts of the United States.

Between the 19th and 21st of August, John Evans Atta Mills made his presence felt in the City of Atlanta.

With healthcare very much on the agenda of a Mills Presidency, John Evans Atta Mills first visited the celebrated Morehouse School of Medicine, where he discussed a wide of range of issues affecting the effective delivery of healthcare in Ghana.

The point that stood tallest in the deliberations, was how a government led by John Evans Atta Mills intends to collaborate effectively with institutions like Morehouse to run programmes that would build the capacity of health personnel in Ghana.

According to the NDC Presidential Candidate, his visit to Morehouse was very strategic because the school has a proven track record of research into the diseases that affect the black race.

Especially in the area of Public Health, the Morehouse School of Medicine, which is a predominantly black institution, is known to be on top of the issue and John Evans Atta Mills made it known that his Health Experts had already put in place comprehensive documents that would see his government collaborate effectively with recognized institutions like Morehouse School of Medicine to grow Ghana’s area of research into medicine and to put in place state of the art biostatistics and data management systems that would take Ghana’s healthcare delivery to greater and acceptable heights.

John Evans Atta Mills also made the point that very much in line with the social democracy philosophy of his party, “my government’s health care agenda would focus more on societal based curative approach to healthcare delivery as opposed to the high-end individualistic approach that leaves the vulnerable and marginalized in society to their fate”.

The faculty that brainstormed with the NDC Presidential Candidate, were extremely appreciative of the fact that John Evans Atta Mills was looking beyond the election and already putting in place strategies for the areas of capacity building and healthcare delivery under his administration.

In response to that, John Evans Atta Mills said, “of what use would my time in office be, if I preside over a sick nation? The wealth of our nation is in its human resource and I will need a healthy work force to be able to drive my vision for Ghana”.

The Morehouse School of Medicine has Ghanaian Professor, Danso Boafo as a faculty member and incidentally, Professor Danso Baofo was a onetime Ambassador to Cuba under the NDC regime, and was also the Health Minister in the same government at the time the NPP took over in 2001.

Indeed, it is where John Evans Atta Mills, the likes of Professor Kwaku Danso Boafo and NDC’s Health Advisory Team want to get Ghana’s healthcare system to, that resulted in the consultation that went on between the Morehouse School of Medicine and the former Vice President of the Republic of Ghana.

Still on the education front, John Evans Atta Mills was a guest of the Bauder College Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, the largest honor society for academic excellence worldwide, where he spoke on the concept of Leadership.

According to the former law lecturer and legal luminary, the concept of leadership can be defined variously depending on which angle it is examined from but for him, no matter what angle it is looked at from, leadership means to him one thing: “THE ABILITY TO LEAD PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH A COMMON PURPOSE”.

“A good leader must not only have a realistic vision, but must have a comprehensive roadmap that would lead to the realization of that vision. And for the vision to be realized, it is important that there is a collective ownership of the vision and that is why good leaders never assume that they are the repository of all knowledge” Atta Mills said.

“Leaders must also exhibit the character traits of, humility, honesty, competence, confidence, knowledge, fairness and courage” Atta Mills added.

The NDC Presidential Candidate put it out that “responsibility” is the other side of the leadership coin and that those who are able to succeed as leaders are the ones who are able to be alive to the responsibilities that leadership roles thrusts upon them.

Finding himself before students, which was his natural habitat for more than a quarter of a century, the former law lecturer held the attention of the packed auditorium throughout his delivery.

The President of Bauder College, Reginald M. Morton, was present alongside some staff of the college, and a certificate of honor reading “In Appreciation of Your Outstanding Contribution To The Staff and Students at Bauder College” was presented to John Evans Atta Mills.

Mr. Edem Kplivi, a Ghanaian student at the college, and secretary to college’s Phi Theta Kappa Chapter, was very instrumental in creating the platform for John Evans Atta Mills to impart knowledge to the students - something that he loves doing, and which comes to him naturally.

John Evans Atta Mills was accompanied to the Morehouse School of Medicine by his brother, Dr. Cadman Atta Mills and Koku Anyidoho, with Professor Danso Boafo and the NDC Chairman in Atlanta, Mr. Tony Amuzu, joining the entourage to Bauder College.

Also present at Bauder College, were a number of Ghanaians who were in the know that John Evans Atta Mills was going to be at the college and so took time off work to be there to lend support to the man who many consider to be the president-in-waiting.