Ghanaians were dazed and faced with the uninspiring realities of mortality by the death of the country’s sitting president, Prof President John Atta Mills; the first of its kind in 2012.
But eight years down the line, memories of him still evoke emotions and national interest.
However, not much has been done to preserve the legacy of the former leader who lost his life after succumbing to health complications.
On the back of this, however, Managing Editor of the Insight News Paper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr has berated the seeming lack of attention and preservation of national legacies of former leaders, particularly that of late Prof Mills.
Kwesi Pratt believes the way and manner in which some national monuments erected to preserve the legacies of Prof Mills of blessed memory has been handled leaves more to be desired.
It would be recalled that in an attempt to honour the late president’s memories and legacies, a national library named, Atta Mills Library was established in Cape Coast, similarly, a beautifully decorated presidential mausoleum which was christened, Asomdwee Park was established to host the body of the late president.
But as though the act of maintenance culture never existed, the presidential mausoleum has been left in complete disarray and his library left under lock and key for several years.
Consequently, in 2018 a group called Cape Coast Youth Development Association (CCYDA) threatened to demonstrate against the unoperationalisation of the library.
While speaking in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb, eight years after the death of his good friend, he said successive governments and Ghanaians have not been interested in preserving the history of the late president.
Not only Prof Mills, he added that other great memories of past presidents of the country including Dr Kwame Nkrumah have also been left in shambles.
He said, “Generally we haven’t been interested in the preservation of our history and Professor Mills is no exception. I mean the research library which was built for him in Cape Coast, I went to see it a couple of years ago and it was in shambles. So that’s a problem that we have as a country and it’s not just about President Mills it’s about everything that we should be preserving.”
Mr Pratt also advised that the preservation of such historical monuments must not be left to government alone.
“The preservation of our history should not just be a governmental affair…,” he said.
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