According to him, Raymond Atuguba, who was close to the then Vice President, asked him to write the speech at a time when he was a student at the University of Ghana, Legon, preparing for law school.
Barker-Vormawor recounted that he received the request late at night and had to forgo sleep to complete the speech in time for President Mahama to deliver it the next morning in his address to Parliament and the nation.
“I’m most proud of John Mahama’s address to Parliament after Mills died because I wrote that speech. We didn’t know each other at the time, but Raymond Atuguba asked me to write it.
“I was in Legon, preparing to enter law school, so I had to write it overnight. I slept on the floor, speechwriting is hard,” he said in an interview with Kafui Dey.
He added that he was especially proud of the speech, describing it as the most bipartisan address he had ever heard, as it embodied a vision of national renewal in the wake of the president’s death.
“In that moment, I was channeling everything I believed into the speech. It’s the most bipartisan address I’ve ever heard. I felt that Mills’ death should offer us a chance for renewal, my own aspirations and hopes poured into that document,” he noted.
President Atta Mills passed away on July 24, 2012, at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, just three days after his 68th birthday. Then-Vice President John Mahama was sworn in as President and later won the 2012 general elections.
Watch Barker-Vormawor’s remarks in the video below:
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
