Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Former Vice-President and Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress for the 2000 elections is to assist the United Nations to establish a new Centre for Human Security that would be affiliated to the University of Peace.

Prof Mills, who has accepted an offer of a Visiting Scholar at the University of British Columbia, would help to promote greater understanding of African development and governance issues and provide North Americans with a different perspective of Africa and the nature of the requirements needed for democracy in Ghana, in particular and Africa in general, to thrive.

Professor Mills, who would also be a Senior Associate at the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues, British Columbia, Canada, confirmed his acceptance of the offer at a farewell reception he held for the media and some senior members of the NDC in Accra.

Prof Mills, who leaves on Friday, said he regarded the appointment as a tribute to the positive strides Ghana has made towards democracy.

"Coming after my four-year tenure as Vice- President, I see my appointment as a tribute to the tremendous progress Ghana has made on the path to democracy and progress.

"It is also a testimony to the performance of the NDC while it was in power and that the one-year period that I will spend in Canada would be one of reflection, and I hope to tell our story as objectively as possible."

He said in spite of the "intensive anti-NDC propaganda" since his party's defeat, no one could deny that the Ghanaian economy that was in tatters in December 1981 had been transformed under the PNDC/NDC to a dynamic one with a well-developed infrastructure by the time it left office.

"Ghana's economy today is well-poised to take off, such that the policy debates have rightly shifted to the size of the budget deficit, inflation and the exchange rate, and not on the availability of basic foodstuffs, so-called essential commodities, foreign exchange allocations or the length of queues for petrol and all manner of products as we met in 1982."

Prof Mills said despite his absence, he would be more than ever committed to playing a central role in the party's ongoing re-organisation, adding that this commitment to re-energise NDC's return to power should never be in doubt.

"...I fully intend to actively participate in the political life of our dear country... Canada is only a telephone call and a website away from Ghana," he declared and indicated that he would be home to participate in the NDC's biennial congress tentatively scheduled for December this year.

He said North America offers him a unique opportunity to meet and explain the new direction and agenda of the NDC.

"I will brief them on the purpose of the re-organisation exercise and elicit their support for our efforts at renewal, attracting the best and the brightest that Ghana has to offer and to broaden the base of the party.

"The NDC has always been broad based and we should never forgo any opportunity to broaden it even further."

Prof Mills said he would return home "at the earliest opportunity" to complete his nationwide programme to thank party supporters, chiefs, opinion leaders and all Ghanaians for their unflinching support during the last elections