A former Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Kwamena Ahwoi has revealed that, but for him and other prominent members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), late professor Evans Attah Mills would have resigned from office as president.
According to Kwamena Ahwoi, this decision was based on the constant verbal attack by Jerry John Rawlings against the former President.
He said when Mills called to inform him (Ahwoi) about his resignation while he was at an IEA workshop Aburi, it took his efforts, that of Captain Kojo Tsikata and Totobi Quakyi to get him rescind that decision. It took about 4 hours, he said, to convince Prof. Mills against his initial plans when they visited him.
He added that, during their visit, Atta Mills had already packed his things in a suitcase and was ready to leave.
Speaking to on Citi TV’s Footprint show, Professor Ahwoi said “There was one particular incident which caused President Mills nearly to resign. He resigned, the only thing that saved this country was that he called to tell me that he was resigning. I was at [an] IEA workshop at Aburi. He said ‘have you heard what Jerry [Rawlings] has said about me in Tamale?’ he said, ‘get the tape and listen to it because I have resigned and I don’t want anybody to try and stop me.”
“I said to him, "Mr. President, I believe that you have decided to resign, but I also believe that you are not sure whether you have taken the right decision. You want a second opinion, otherwise, you would not have called to tell me. I would have heard about it in the media.” He added
“So we talked for about four hours which ran into midnight and we managed to convince him to stay because we were taking certain corrective measures,” he revealed.
“We were successful in those measures and as a result, he stayed. Otherwise, he was going to resign on account of the way Jerry Rawlings was treating him,” he added.
Citing some of the instances Jerry John Rawlings attacked Mills, Professor Ahwoi mentioned Atta Mortuaryman and a ‘Konongo kaya story’.
The late professor John Evans Atta Mills, former president of the republic of Ghana