Former Minister of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has described the late President John Evans Atta Mills as an ethical and compassionate leader, saying some individuals within his administration took advantage of his declining health to pursue personal interests.

Speaking at the 14th Commemorative Lecture in honour of Prof John Evans Atta Mills on Wednesday, July 22, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng said his assessment of the former president was based on personal encounters with him years before he became president.

"I knew Professor Mills from three encounters, 11 years before the presidency touched him. And in those three meetings, I came to know exactly who he was, a very good person, a good man," he said.

According to him, the health condition that eventually claimed President Mills’ life appeared to affect him as his time in office progressed.

"I knew something else too, and I say it not to excuse, but to explain. The disease that would eventually take his life appeared to have affected him," Prof. Frimpong-Boateng stated.

He alleged that as President Mills’ health and strength declined, some people within his administration exploited his situation to advance personal agendas or settle disputes.

"And as the presidency wore him down and his strength declined by degrees, there were certain people in his administration who saw an opening, who used his fragility to pursue their personal agenda or to settle scores that were not his to settle," he said.

However, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng stressed that his comments were not intended to excuse any shortcomings of the Mills administration, insisting that the late president remained a man of strong ethical values.

"Let me be precise about what I am, and I'm not saying. Prof Mills was ethical. He was compassionate. By every measure I was able to take of the man across three meetings, he was good," he said.

He encouraged Ghanaians to remember Professor Mills beyond his presidential office, saying the man people encountered privately was the same person they saw publicly.

"Those who knew Professor Mills even briefly encountered the same man twice, the private figure and the public one. And they were not two different people wearing different masks. They were the same person at different volumes," he said.

Prof. Frimpong-Boateng added that President Mills’ warmth towards people and his firmness against wrongdoing were two sides of the same character.

"His warmth and compassion towards people and severity towards wrongdoing were in him the same virtue pointed in two directions," he said.