Govt won’t support John Evans Atta Mills Presidential Library

The government cannot release public funds to support the John Evans Atta Mills Presidential Library in Cape Coast because the memorial and research facility is a private initiative.

The Central Regional Minister, Mr Kwamena Duncan, told the Daily Graphic in an interview on Wednesday that “this facility is purely a private enterprise to immortalise President Mills, so government cannot commit funds to its running.”

Private initiative

He said because the project was a private initiative such as presidents Kufuor and Rawlings’s foundations, no government funds could be released to fund the library.

“Besides, when I was taking over as minister, nothing on President Mills’s Library was included in my hand over notes, so we can’t fund it,” he said.

Committee

Mr Duncan said he could recall during the inauguration of the facility, a committee was constituted to run the affairs of the library, and added “I remember a committee was constituted, under the chairmanship of Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi to fund the library.”

We won’t fund

“So there is no way the government can step in at this stage. The government will not commit one cedi to this project,” he said.

The John Evans Atta Mills Presidential Library has been closed down for lack of funds to run it.

The two-storey building, situated opposite the Cape Coast Castle, has been under lock and key few months after it was inaugurated and handed over to the University of Cape Coast (UCC) because there is no budget to fund the facility.

Inauguration

President John Dramani Mahama inaugurated the library on July 24, 2016 to coincide with the anniversary of the death of President Mills.

The library has a 100-capacity auditorium, 45-seater multi-media centre, seminar rooms and a museum that holds historical materials that reflect the life and works of the late president.