Ghana’s president since 7 January 2017 is Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, a politician from Ghana born on March 29, 1944. He was re-elected in 2020 for a second term that would finish on January 6, 2025. Under the Kufuor-led administration, Akufo-Addo previously held the positions of Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007. On September 7, 2020, he was chosen to lead the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On February 2, 2021, he was chosen to serve a second term as the head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On July 3, 2022, his term came to a conclusion.
Akufo-Addo initially sought the presidency in 2008 and then again in 2012, both times as the New Patriotic Party’s nominee (NPP). John Evans Atta Mills and John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress were the winners on both occasions. He refused to accept after the 2012 general elections and went to court to protest the results, but the Supreme Court of Ghana upheld Mahama’s win.
He was chosen as the National Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate for the 2016 general elections a third time, and this time he defeated President Mahama in the first round, making history as the first opposition candidate to win a majority in a Ghanaian presidential election. Also, it was the first time an opposition candidate had succeeded in unseating the president.
He defeated Mahama once more in the first round of the 2020 general elections, securing an overwhelming majority once more. On January 7, 2021, at precisely 1:03 pm GMT, he took the oath of office.
Nana Akufo-Addo committed in December 2021 to abide by the Ghanaian constitution’s two-term limit and refrain from seeking a third term.
Nana Akuffo Addo’s Early life and education
Addo Dankwa Nana The son of Adeline and Edward Akufo-Addo was born in Swalaba Accra, Ghana, on March 29, 1944. His family is well-known in Ghanaian politics and royalty. His father, Edward Akufo-Addo of Akropong-Akuapem, served as Ghana’s third Chief Justice from 1966 to 1970, served as the country’s non-executive president from 1970 to 1972, and served as the commission’s chairman in 1967 and 1968. Before Ghana’s independence, Nana Sir Ofori Atta, King of Akyem Abuakwa, was on the executive council of the governor of the Gold Coast and was Akufo-maternal Addo’s grandfather. He is Kofi Asante Ofori-and Atta’s William Ofori Atta’s nephew. J. B. Danquah, another one of The Big Six, was his granduncle.
He attended Kinbu in Accra Central after beginning his basic schooling at the Government Boys School in Adabraka. He traveled to England to attend Lancing College in Sussex to complete his O-Level and A-Level coursework. Once there, he adopted the moniker “Billy” and embraced the Anglican faith. In 1962, he enrolled in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics course at Oxford’s New College, but he soon dropped out.
He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy before enrolling at the University of Ghana’s Legon campus to study economics in 1964, graduating with a BSc (Econ) in 1967. After that, he joined Middle Temple and began his legal apprenticeship there, where there was no official requirement for a law degree. In July 1971, he received a call to the English Bar (Middle Temple). In July 1975, he received a summons to the Ghanaian bar. Akufo-Addo collaborated with the Coudert Brothers law firm’s Paris branch. He co-founded the legal business Prempeh and Co. in 1979.
Nana Akuffo Addo’s Political Career
Although he was well-known by his friends to have been a vocal supporter of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) while a student at the University of Ghana, he switched sides to the competing UP tradition following the overthrow of President Nkrumah in 1966, after which his father, Edward Akufo-Addo, became Ghana’s ceremonial president in 1969. Akufo-Addo officially entered politics in the late 1970s when he joined the People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), a group established to contest the Union Government’s plans put forth by the Supreme Military Council, which was headed by General Acheampong.
He joined a large elite group that established Alliance for Change in May 1995. This alliance planned protests against neo-liberal policies such the implementation of the Value Added Tax and human rights abuses during the Rawlings administration. He was at the fore of this protest, together with Saifullah, Kwasi Pratt Jr., Dr. Charles Wreko Brobbey, Senior Minister Victor Newman, and Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako. An further 100,000 individuals joined them. Kumepreko was the protest’s name. The broad-based opposition alliance finally disintegrated as top elites fought for control positions. He established Ghana’s Commission on Human and People’s Rights, an organization dedicated to civil rights, in the 1990s.
He served as a representative of the Abuakwa Constituency in the second, third, and fourth parliaments of the fourth republic.
In the 1996 elections, he received 28,526 votes out of the 50,263 valid ballots cast, or 56.75 percent of the vote, beating out Owuraku Amofa (20,173), Adoo-Aikins (705), Ahmadu Rufai (682), and Emmanuel Kofi Tamakloe (177) in that order. He triumphed once more in the general elections of 2000, receiving 28,633 votes out of the 45,795 valid votes cast, or 62.50% of the vote, to defeat Christiana Annor’s 14,486 votes, Addo-Aikins’ 1.088 votes, Theresa Stella Amakye’s 593 votes, Kofi Opoku-519 Gyamera’s votes, and Isaac Duodu Awah’s 506 votes.
Nana Addo’s Presidential bids
Akufo-Addo ran for president of the NPP in October 1998 but was defeated by John Kufuor, who went on to win the election in December 2000 and become president of Ghana in January 2001. In the 2000 election, Akufo-Addo led Kufuor’s primary campaign. He eventually went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development after serving as the Kufuor era’s first attorney general and minister for justice (NEPAD).
He was widely expected to win the New Patriotic Party’s presidential primary elections in 2007. In a tightly contested race against John Atta Mills of the NDC in 2008, Akufo-Addo represented the NPP. Akufo-Addo received 49.13% of the vote in the first round, just ahead of Atta Mills but falling short of the required 50% of the vote under the constitution to be declared the victor.
In the 2012 presidential contest, Akufo-Addo campaigned against John Mahama of the NDC, the NDC’s nominee to succeed the late Atta Mills. Akufo-Addo legally contested the election’s results after Mahama was named the victor. The Ghana Supreme Court ultimately ruled in favor of Mahama in the highly contentious case after a close vote of 5 to 4. In the sake of global peace and economic stability, Akufo-Addo accepted the ruling.
Akufo-Addo declared in March 2014 that he will run for his party’s nomination a third time in the 2016 election. He received 94.35% of the votes in the NPP primary held in October 2014, making him the winner. Akufo-Addo oversaw the Commonwealth Observation Mission for the 2014 elections in South Africa.
He centered his campaign on the economy, vowing to lower unemployment rates and stabilize the country’s foreign exchange rate. Mahama, the incumbent president, conceded defeat to Akufo-Addo on December 9, 2016. Against Mahama’s 44.4%, Akufo-Addo received 53.83% of the vote to win the election.
In advance of the 2020 general elections, Nana Addo made his decision to seek reelection known by selecting a nomination form as the NPP’s flagbearer. With just 51.59% of the vote needed to be re-elected in one round, Nana Addo has proclaimed the victor of the 7 December 2020 Ghanaian presidential election on December 9.
Nana Akuffo Addo As President Of Ghana
Inauguration
Akufo-Addo began serving on January 7, 2017. Accra’s Black Star Square served as the site of his inauguration. Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria were among the twelve presidents that were present at the ceremony.
Akufo-Addo received criticism for copying passages verbatim from previous inaugural speeches by American presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush as well as prepared remarks delivered by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at a 2015 United States Institute of Peace event. This criticism came particularly from social media. His press office apologized once the story was made public, with his communication director claiming it was a “absolute oversight and never purposeful.”
As the Ghanaian Supreme Court affirmed President John Mahama’s 2012 election victory, it was discovered that Akufo-Addo had also plagiarized parts of his 2013 concession address. Lines from US Vice President Al Gore’s 2000 presidential concession address delivered following the US Supreme Court decision were directly quoted in that speech.
Education
The Free Senior High School (SHS) program, which would make secondary high education in Ghana free for pupils, was introduced by the president in September 2017. According to the president, it is a “vital investment in the nation’s future workforce” and will support parents who are struggling to afford their children’s education. While parents and kids around the country responded positively to the initiative, private schools that oppose it claim that it would result in a decline in the number of pupils enrolling in their system.
Economy
The 7-year Coordinated Plan of Economic and Social Development Policies, which the president unveiled in 2018, is intended to boost employment in the nation. The president claims that the policies are based on “five pillars of growth and development, including revitalizing the economy, transforming agriculture and industry, revamping economic and social infrastructure, strengthening social protection and inclusion, and reforming public service delivery institutions. The administration of Akufo-Addo continued to borrow even though the IMF had previously warned the nation that it was in high danger of debt distress, increasing the country’s public debt from 56% of GDP to 63% before the epidemic. Ghana borrowed significantly more after the epidemic than its neighbors, which led to the second-highest budget deficit issue in Sub-Saharan Africa at 16% as of 2020, far above the regional average of 6%.
LGBT rights
In Ghana, Akufo-Addo has adopted a rather moderate stance on LGBT rights. He asserted that the legalization of homosexuality is imminent in November 2017 and predicted a change in the legislation. Akufo-Addo, who spent a large portion of his formative years in England, predicted that Ghana’s LGBT rights would develop in a similar way to the UK’s. He did, however, state that the government’s current plans do not include Gay rights. He maintained in August 2018 that under his leadership, the Ghanaian government will neither decriminalize homosexuality or legalize same-sex unions.
Sports
Due to Ghana hosting the Africa Games in 2023, the Akufo-Addo administration declared in February 2019 that all sporting facilities around the nation will be completely renovated. Accra and Cape Coast Sports Stadiums as well as the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex in Kaneshie are among the structures. Moreover, work will continue on the University of Ghana Sports Stadium, whose repairs were shelved in 2009 after former President John Kufuor left office.
Other ventures
Under the leadership of the president, Ghana’s regions grew from 10 to sixteen in 2019. Oti, Western North, North East, Ahafo (splitting from Brong), Savannah, and Bono East Regions are the new regions. The establishment of the regions puts a stop to decades’ worth of government petitions requesting the creation of new areas.
In 2020, he joined a movement to make the COVID-19 vaccination available to everyone by signing the UNAIDS Public Letter on People’s Vaccines. He signed the document alongside other international leaders. When vaccination is made accessible, “all individuals worldwide must have access to the vaccine,” he stated. An open letter advocating for the free and universal availability of all vaccines against diseases was written in response to worries that people in wealthy nations could have easier access to the vaccine than those in poorer nations. [2] Ghana was the first nation in Africa to receive COVID-19 vaccinations under the COVAX initiative of the World Health Organization in February 2021. The AstraZeneca vaccinations totaled 600,000 doses in the shipment.
He installed Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu and Clemence Jackson Honyenuga as Supreme Court judges in May 2020 at the Jubilee House.
Personal life
Akufo-Addo hails from the Eastern Region’s Akropong-Akuapem and Kyebi, and both lines of his family are Presbyterian. He is married to Rebecca Akufo-Addo (née Griffiths-Randolph), a judge’s daughter who served as Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament during the Third Republic and is a former judge. Akufo-Addo wed Rebecca after already having two wives. Remi Fani-Kayode and Eleanor Nkansah-Gyamenah are their names. After over ten years of being together, Akufo-marriage Addo’s to Remi ended in divorce, whilst his marriage to Eleanor ended with her passing.
Gyankroma, Edwina, Adriana, Yeboakua, and Valerie are the five daughters that Akufo-Addo is biologically related to, and one stepdaughter. His second marriage to Eleanor produced a daughter, whereas his first marriage to a Nigerian woman Remi produced two of his children.
Awards
The Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice was given to Akufo-Addo in 2016 by the Harmony Foundation in recognition of his sacrifice of political aspirations for the sake of national peace and reconciliation.
On behalf of the people of Ghana, the Africa-America Institute presented him with the National Achievement Award in 2017. The honor was granted to Ghana in recognition of its role as an example of freedom, democracy, and stability in Africa.
The Whitaker Group presented Akufo-Addo with an award for “Exemplary Leadership” in June 2018. For his initiatives to modernize Ghana’s ports, he was given the African Port Award by The African Port Award (APA) Foundation in August 2018. Akufo-Addo received the 2018 Exceptional Leader’s Award from the U.S. Africa Business Centre of the United States Chamber of Commerce in September 2018 in honor of his regional, diplomatic, and economic leadership in Africa. In appreciation of his dedication to raising Ghanaians’ standards of living and running the nation in conformity with the rule of law, he was given the 2018 Governance Leadership Award in October 2018.
Akufo-Addo was chosen in May 2019 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres to serve as co-chair of the newly formed SDG advocacy group with Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg. These advocates’ job is to increase understanding of the SDGs, encourage higher ambition, and encourage quick action (SDGs).
Akufo-significant Addo’s contribution to Ghana’s sports development and projects, as well as his successful bid to host the 2023 African Games, led the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) to announce in June 2019 that he would receive the association’s Merit Award for Heads of State.
During the fourth Ghana Hotels Association Awards, which were hosted on January 20, 2020, Nana Akufo-Addo received recognition for exhibiting visionary leadership by announcing the year of return and seeing to its effective execution.
Akufo-Addo received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, on October 10, 2022.
