General News of Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Source: The Independent Newspaper

I would have replied critics - Kofi Atta Mills

Son of the late the President John Evans Atta Mills, Samuel Kofi Atta Mills, says he would have acted differently from his father and tried to bring his critics to order if he ever stepped into the shoes of the late President.

Kofi Mills believed his father was very tolerant and took it in his stride the negative media reportage and the political salvos that were hurled against his personality while in government.

“He (President Mills) had experience. He was a very intelligent person. So, he knew the best way in dealing with the people. And also whoever wanted to criticize him whether it was negative or positive, he just knew how to deal with the situation.

“He had a lot of patience, and he was tolerant to a lot of things… he took a lot in. He did take a lot in. A lot of people wouldn’t have had the patience and the kind of character that he had to contain some of the things” but if he (Kofi Mills) had gotten the opportunity to be in the stead of his father, he posited that, sometimes, he would have been a bit furious.

He wondered why his father allowed people to vilify him while alive and at the helm of affairs.

Sam Mills said he sometimes asked his father; “Why would you allow people to talk to you like that or why would you allow people to insult you? I mean being who you are, I’m sure you have some level of control and you could kind of put some measures in place that people would not tow in a certain manner or not that kind of stuff.”

He, however, described late President Mills as his “biggest inspiration” who challenged him to aspire to greater heights but was uncertain if he can better the great exploits done by his father.