Death is always a sobering experience. In the case of late President John Evans Atta Mills, his passing into glory got the whole nation grieving on end. Not only was he the first Ghanaian leader to have died at the Presidency, his demeanour endeared him to many a peace loving national.

One year after the Professor went to the village, the void in national politics is still yawning. There are many out there who cannot believe that the law professor, who became the sixth constitutional Head of State of this Republic, and who many regarded as 'Asomdweehene', is no more.

The late professor is credited with leading the then opposition National Democratic Congress to capture power at a time when the fortunes of the party had been seriously undermined by series of corrupt practices by some leading elements, when the party founded in the ashes of one of the most brutal military dictatorship, held sway in national politics for 19 years.

The academician who found solace in later years as the political and administrative head of Ghana is credited with presiding over inflation in single figures for close to three years. In 2011, when inflation dipped to 8.5 percent, it was the lowest recorded inflation in 42 years, according to official figures available.

In life, Prof. Mills was one of the finest gentlemen the Almighty bestowed on this country. An academic of extra-ordinary proportion, the late Prof. Mills was a proud holder of a doctorate degree at the age of 27, when many young men and women in the third world especially, would still be battling to be decorated with a first degree.

A sports man and sports administrator, Prof. Mills was an all-rounder, whose demise was a big blow to national aspirations. Having made these findings, it is my respectful belief that the late President of the Republic should not have contested for the 2008 Presidential elections. As a matter of fact, the former President's health was not the very best at the time.

Long before nominations opened, Prof. Mills had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. At a point in time, he was hospitalized in South Africa. His medical bills, I can disclose, were so huge that he could not afford the cost.

It took the intervention of a very prominent Ghanaian, who was then on a visit to the former apartheid Republic to bail out the then leader of the opposition National Democratic Congress.

In spite of the outpouring of grief and eulogies that are still being offered, one year after his passing away, the blunt truth is that his Government seriously under-performed in all sectors of national life.

With the President indisposed, the leader of the nation at that point in time, was hardly conscious of how things were done around him. Simply put, people around him misused his power and condemned his regime to an also run administration of try and error.

On assuming power in January 2009, then President Mills made the following declaration: "My solemn pledge to the youth of Ghana is that Atta Mills and his Government will do everything possible to make sure that Ghana remains a haven of peace and unity. The rich talents and rich human qualities given by God will enable us overcome the challenges posed by the global economic downturn and inadequacies in the management of the nation's economy."

It was an intention obviously borne out of an inner conviction to try and change the economic and political fortunes of Ghana. On a number of occasions when I met him while in opposition, he appeared to be on a mission to grab power and change the fortunes of this nation.

That he failed is a fact that cannot be in doubt. In my humble view, the deceased President was more pre-occupied with matters relating to his own health than becoming a check on those he had brought on board to help him administer the nation.

Had Prof. Mills been that well, there was no way that GH¢51 million of state cash would be parceled and doled out to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, under his watch. I am submitting here that the findings of the Economic and Organised Crime Office that deceased President Mills knew nothing about the Woyome scandal and that when it was brought to his attention, the former President tried to stop the payment on two occasions, was a cock and bull story.

It was the deceased President who authorized the payment. And it was after the hawks in his party had surrounded him to authorize payment on the basis that the state indeed owed Woyome. In his state of illness, Prof. Mills could not be bothered to examine the documents on the payments.

It was not only the Woyome scandal that people in his administration 'created, looted and shared' under his watch. The late Prof. was supposed to be in charge of the state coffers when leaders of the National Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency squandered more than GH¢200 million of state cash in various deals.

Always ill and infirm in the leadership saddle, Prof. Mills allowed too many things to go on unchecked. The story sold to Ghanaians that Mr. Martin Amidu was sacked for being rude to the President at a time the former Attorney-General was bent on retrieving state monies wrongly paid to cronies of some officials of the Mills administration, was cooked obviously without the former President's input.

Under the ill and infirm leadership of the former President, state assets were misapplied without sanctions from the very top. It is an open secret that in the formative times of the Mills regime, key appointments were made without the President being aware.

There is this joke told in high places, that when an appointee of Mills arrived at an office designed for him, someone had already taken up the post. When the appointee complained to the President, all Prof. Mills could say was to mention a name and complain that a key member of his appointment was worrying him.

In spite of the roof-top advertisement of building a Better Ghana sold by over-zealous party agents, the bequeathed to citizens on his death, was divided and economically weaker with most of its citizens unable to eke out a meaningful living. In all honesty, the Presidency by the deceased leader was tragic for the nation and its people.

His wretched record in office not withstanding, the life of the Ekumfi-born former law lecturer is worth celebrating. His academic life for instance, impacted positively on nation-building.

Born at Tarkwa in the Western Region of Ekumfi lineage, the late President of Ghana studied at the Achimota School in Accra, before proceeding to the University of Ghana, Legon, to study law.

From Legon, young Mills enrolled at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he was decorated in 1971, with his Doctorate degree, aged 27.

His thesis was on Taxation and Economic Developement. Armed with the Doctorate in Law, then Dr. Mills returned to Legon, where he lectured at the Law Faculty.

A scholar of international repute, the late President was a visiting Professor at the Temple University, Philadelphia, in the United States of America, Visiting Lecturer at the Leiden University in the Netherlands and did a stint as a Scholar at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver, Canada, through a joint Canadian International Development Agency - International Research Centre (IDRC) fellowship programme.

Away from the academic front, Prof. Mills was Acting Commissioner of Income Tax from 1988 to 1993 and confirmed Commissioner from 1993 till 1996, when he was nominated by former President Jerry John Rawlings as his running mate for the 1996 Presidential elections.

The story is told that in 1995, Mr. Rawlings had a fracas with then Finance Minister Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, over the actual figures of cash returns filed by the Internal Revenue Service. To ascertain the true figures, President Rawlings personally went to the Internal Revenue Service unannounced to verify the situation himself.

At the IRS, near the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Prof. Mills was said to have brought out all the books on tax returns and educated the ex-junta head on all monies collected by the IRS in the year. A highly satisfied Mr. Rawlings told the professor that he was "a very honest man."

Following the fracas Mr. Rawlings had with former Vice-President Kow Nkesen Arkaah, the ex-President vowed that his next Vice-Presidential candidate would be an honest person. That was how Prof. Mills came to be named as the running mate of Mr. Jerry John Rawlings in the 1996 Presidential elections.

Prof. Mills might not have been the ideal leader of this hapless nation in the three years he led from the front. But as a Ghanaian he achieved so much that his life is worth celebrating.

Aside of the academic and tax affairs, Prof. Mills was one-time Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Sports Council, now authority, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Accra Hearts of Oak, Member of the Ghana Stock Exchange, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Mines Trust, Management Committee Member of the Commonwealth Administration of Tax Experts, United Nations Ad-Hoc Group of Experts on in International Co-operation in Tax Matters and UN Law and Population Project among many others.

Prof. Mills has now joined his ancestors, when cometh another giant of the structure of the former President of the Republic of Ghana?