Rotting legacy: Atta Mills Presidential Library abandoned amid turf war and bureaucracy

The Atta Mills Presidential library in Cape Coast, built in memory of the late academic and former president, is rotting away after years of abandonment.

The monument located in the heart of the Central Regional capital and intended for academic research and historical preservation of the life and work of the late former president is now home to decay and weeds.

Checks by The Fourth Estate revealed a long trail of administrative bureaucracy, including a legal battle over payment of the contractor and a turf war over the institution to manage the library built with funding from the country’s telcos.

The Ghana Tourism Authority, Museums and Monuments Board, and the University of Cape Coast appear to be at odds over how to operate what is intended to honour Ghana’s first Vice-President to become President.

The three-story library situated directly opposite the Cape Coast Castle is surrounded by gutters choked with filth and weeds. Its cracked walls, rusted metals, and the welcome peeling signage of “John Evans Atta Mills Presidential Library” are evidence of the deterioration the library is grappling with.

The outdoor units of the air conditioners are visibly worn out, with their metal casings stained by large patches of rust, the result of possible exposure to moisture and lack of maintenance.

“It has become an eyesore, and it is quite disappointing,” a resident, Efua Benti (not her real name) said, choosing her words carefully in fear of political victimization.

Efua Bentil is a close relative of former President Atta Mills.  On July 24, 2016, she happily toured the library when President John Mahama commissioned it. It is the first of its kind in honour of a former Ghanaian president.

From the silent room where visitors sat and quietly enjoyed the life story of the late president on large screen to the other parts of the library for research and recreational purposes, the idea of a memorial library stood out as promising. 

It was modeled after the US Presidential Library system and mirrored former president Olusegun Obasanjo’s Presidential Library in Abeokuta in Nigeria. 

Disappointed residents

“The Atta Mills Presidential Library will serve as a reference centre for knowledge in economics, politics, education, law and other thought forms to ensure we build a better future, transform our country and change the lives of our people,” President Mahama said at the inauguration ceremony of the library in 2016.

A little over ten years down the line, the library stands in sharp contrast to what it was promised to deliver, and Efua is disappointed.

“We understand that it was put up by the NDC government, and when we went into opposition, nobody cared about it, so as a family, it is disheartening to see it that way,” Efua says.

Her sentiments echo those of many Ghanaians, especially residents of Cape Coast, who had received the library project with so much joy.

Many residents of Cape Coast believed the library was going to make Cape Coast more vibrant since it had the potential of increasing tourists’ inflows to the city, already famous for its tourism and educational institutions.

However, the few tourists who turn up at the facility only use its forecourt for dining. Others use the vast courtyard for resting and other forms of recreation. Several other people have said that the library’s forecourt has on several occasions been used by people for events. 

“I have been there to serve tourists about three times,” a native who works around the library recounted. “I don’t even know why they built this nice thing and have left it there like that.”

A resident of the city, Gideon Nana Asmah, told The Fourth Estate that his fellow young people are “disappointed in whoever ran [the library] down, whoever couldn’t let this work.”

But Efua believes the library could have been put to better use.

“I think this library should be useful to the youth because they will learn a lot from there. The youth should also learn from [Atta Mills’] dedication to work and all those things,” she says. “We need more answers because what is happening and what is the next step? Who is taking care of it?”

A turf war

In April 2016, the government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the University of Cape Coast to manage the John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Research Library. 

The MoU stated that the library was to “preserve and make available historical materials of the late President Mills and host research scholars in residence, organise scholarly conferences, and public lectures.”

It was also going to serve as a venue to “hold outreach programmes for the benefit of school children and the communities in and around Cape Coast and mark commemorative events linked to anniversary observances of historical events and commemoration of the lives of the late president Mills and other prominent persons of Ghanaian and African descent.”

But none of that has happened after almost nine years. 

Former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof Dora Edu-Buandoh, who was the chairperson of the board tasked with the management of the library, told The Fourth Estate that despite follow-ups and efforts to get the library operationalized, their efforts have been futile.

Prof Edu-Buandoh said she started engaging those who mattered to allow smooth operation of the library. But shortly afterward, the NDC lost power, the NPP took over, and it became difficult to get things done.

The Fourth Estate has learned that after the commissioning of the library on July 24, 2016, the contractor refused to hand over the keys to the facility. His reasons were that the government had not paid him in full.

On July 13, 2023. Mr. Joseph Kojo Mamphey, the contractor from Mandev Construction Limited who is also the Mputuhene of Oguaa Traditional Area handed over the Atta Mills Memorial Library to the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA).

The GTA was to work with the Ghana Library Authority and the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB). The Authority was expected to get the library operational within three (3) months – that is by October 2023.

As of April 2025, the library was still closed. 

But the GTA insists the project has not been abandoned even though the facility is yet to open to receive its first visitors and some of its fixtures and fittings are rusting away with little maintenance, if any at all.

“We are only waiting for a directive from the government to decide on what steps to take next. We are waiting for the powers that be to give us clarity and direction,” says a deputy Chief Executive Officer of the GRA, Mr. Ekow Sampson.

That, however, is no comfort for former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Prof Dora Edu-Buandoh. She says the state of the Atta Mills library is a source of depression for her.

“I have stopped driving in front of the library because when I sit down and I think about my energy, which I put into the construction of the library, hoping that it will come out as an edifice that will befit the former president, and I drive around and I see what it is I feel sad,” she says. “I live in Cape Coast, but I don’t drive around the library consciously.”