Mills, president of Ghana, dies suddenly

Mills met with Obama in March 2012. Obama's father was a native of Kenya.

Ghanaian president John Atta Mills has died. Although he had been suffering from throat cancer, his death is reported as a sudden one. Mills turned 68 years old three days before his death and is survived by his wife and son.  He did not complete his first term as president. 

Mills received a Bachelor’s Degree and Professional Certificate in Law and earned a PhD in Oriental and African Studies from the University of London at the age of 27. Dr. Mills was selected as a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford Law School (USA).

President Mahama

The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama, was immediately sworn in as the new president upon Mills' death. Mahama has a BA Degree in History and obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He also undertook further Postgraduate Studies in Social Psychology at the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow, Russia in 1988. 

At the time of this posting, Mills' official presidential website still displays "happy birthday" wishes. There were also the first lady's remarks from a speech yesterday at the opening ceremony of the 2012 International Youth Fellowship (IYF), World Youth Camp, at Tema. The remarks from Dr Ernestina Naadu-Mills advised young people in the country to desist from acts that could breed chaos. 

"All over the world, especially in Africa, the youth have been used to engineer hostilities, typically during election periods and Ghana is not different at all," she said.

Former Ghana 1st Lady Mills with Michele Obama

A statement released from Mills' office said, "It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the republic of Ghana."

In his meeting with President Obama in March, Mills said the following about his country, which is rich in gold, diamonds, and oil: 

"...if you come to Africa, our people are yearning for only one thing -- improvement in their daily lives.  And there can be no development without peace, which means that we should do the things which will ensure that there is peace and that there’s no room for conflict.

"The United States has been a model, and I’m happy that we are cooperating with one another on all kinds of fronts and they are yielding results...So I assured the President that we have elections this year, but we are going to ensure that there is peace before, during, after the election, because when there is no peace, it’s not the elitists who will suffer, it’s the ordinary people who have elected us into office.

"...We will go back with happy memories.  And of course, this will also reassure our people that the kind of cooperation we started -- from our first President -- is growing from strength to strength."

Photos of Dr. and Mrs. Mills with the Obamas and Dr. Mills' remarks taken from White House website. Picture of Mahama taken from Ghanaian presidential website.