Allowing Atta Mills Library to rot will be sacrilegious – Anyidoho

The Chief Executive Officer of the Atta Mills Foundation, Koku Anyidoho has said allowing the Atta Mills Library located in Cape Coast in the Central Region to rot will be one of the greatest crimes against humanity.

According to him, the poor manner in which the facility is being managed is doing injustice to the memory of late President of Ghana, Prof. JEA Mills whom the library was named after.

Authorities at the University of Cape Coast have claimed that the erstwhile NDC administration failed to honor its pledge of providing funds for the running of the Atta Mills Library in Cape Coast.

The previous Government, according to authorities at the University, refused to provide the needed funds to ensure the smooth running of the facility especially, the research Center.

Former President John Mahama in July 2015 after the launch of the library, handed the project to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Cape Coast to turn it into a research Center focused on the works of the late President.

The library which has a 100 seater conference hall , a museum and artifacts that talk about the life of the late professor, as well as offices was to be turned into a research Center affiliated to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Cape Coast .

However, Kasapa News sources at the university say the non fulfillment of the said pledges by the previous administration is now hampering the running of the place as the university to now burdened with maintaining the facility.

The university which already owes the Electricity Company of Ghana huge amounts in bills spends a minimum of Ghc300 daily to maintain the facility due to its electronic fitting. The huge cost of power forced the university to switch off the electronic aspect of the library.

The contractor of the facility who could also not wait any longer for his fee in undertaking the construction of the facility finally delved a severe blow to the facility by adding additional locks to the doors to prevent people from accessing the facility.

But speaking t Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa FM Thursday, Koku Anyidoho who’s also the Deputy Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) described the library as a cash cow that has the capacity of generating its own income, a reason why it should not be allowed to rot.

“If they don’t want it we’ll take it back, I Koku Anyidoho now in opposition with no busy schedule, I can go and run that facility. Within six months people will be shock the turn around that will be realized. Even if you turn the upper terrace into a restaurant and hand it over to a proper caterer, the money it will generate people have no idea. The Audio Visual centre, if we’re running documentaries on Atta Mills or the History of Ghana the number of people who’ll pay to watch will generate huge money.

“What is going on provides the Atta Mills Foundation an opportunity to take back the Library and run it. We should take it back, run and run it well. Allowing it to rot will be sacrilegious, one of the greatest crimes against humanity.”