Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the new president-elect and the leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has managed to wrestle power away from his main political opponent, President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Obviously it looks like President Mahama has fail to convince Ghanaians that he deserves another four- year tenure to complete his vision for the country and the massive infrastructure developments he started.
Nana Akufo-Addo, among other campaign pledges, promised to tackle the country’s unemployment problem through industrialization and transformation of the economy by advertising that he would build a factory in each of the 216 districts across the country. Here a quick profile of who he is.
Early Life and Education
Nana Akufo-Addo was born on March 29, 1944, and raised in Ga-Maami (Accra Central) and in the Nima area of Accra. Three of the “Big Six” – the founding fathers of Ghana, were his relatives: Joseph B. Danquah (grand uncle), William Ofori-Atta (uncle) and Edward Akufo-Addo (the third Chief Justice of Ghana and later ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969 to 1972), (his father).
Nana Akufo-Addo had primary education, first at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kimbu), both in Accra Central. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex. He returned to Ghana in 1962 and taught at Accra Academy Secondary School, before going to read Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc(Econ) degree in 1967. He subsequently studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971. Nana Akufo-Addo was called to the Ghana bar in July 1975.
Personal Life
Nana Akufo-Addo hails from Kyebi in the Eastern Region and married to Rebecca Akufo-Addo and are blessed with five daughters and five grandchildren.
Legal and Business Career
Nana Akufo-Addo stayed in France for five years as a lawyer at the now-defunct New York-based international law firm Coudert Brothers. Apart from the welcome exposure to the dynamics of international corporate transactions, his stay in France made him fluent in French.
In 1975, he returned to Ghana to continue with his legal career. He joined the chambers of U. V. Campbell from 1975 to 1979, and in 1979 co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh & Co., which has become one of the prominent law firms in Ghana.
Some Ghanaian lawyers, who passed through his law firm are among the most outstanding lawyers at the Ghanaian bar today. They include Sophia Akuffo, Justice of the Supreme Court; Joyce Darko; Daniel Afari Yeboah; Philip Addison; Joe Ghartey, a former Attorney General and Minister for Justice; Alex Quaynor; Frank Davies; Kweku Paintsil; Ursula Owusu; Atta Akyea, Akufo-Addo’s successor as MP for Abuakwa South constituency; Akoto Ampaw; Yoni Kulendi; Kwame Akuffo; Kwaku Asirifi; and Godfred Dame.
Like the “Doyen of Gold Coast politics”, J. B. Danquah, and others before him, Nana Akufo-Addo used his law practice to champion the cause of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy. He was well-known for giving free legal assistance to the poor, and fought for the rights and liberties of Ghanaians. Indeed, many of the important constitutional cases of the modern era, which, inter alia, protected the independence of the judiciary, the right of the citizen to demonstrate without police permit, and the right of equal access of all political parties to the State-owned media, were undertaken by him.
Nana Akufo-Addo has served on the boards and committees of a number of political, legal, commercial, and social organizations in the country. He was the first chairperson of DHL (GH) Ltd; Chairperson, Kinesec Communications (Co) Ltd, publishers of The Statesman; and the first Chairperson of the Ghana Committee on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He was responsible, through his association with the US company, Millicom, for introducing mobile telephony into the country.
Political Career
In his early thirties, Akufo-Addo was the General Secretary of the People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), which was composed of political stalwarts such as General Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, former Head of State of Ghana, and other prominent Ghanaian politicians – William Ofori-Atta, Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Albert Adu Boahen, Sam Okudzeto, Obed Asamoah, Godfrey Agama, K. S. P. Jantuah, Jones Ofori-Atta, Johnny Hanson and Nii Amaah Amartefio.
This group led the “NO” campaign in the Union Government (UNIGOV) referendum of 1978, designed to solicit popular support for a one-party military-led State. The “No” campaign ultimately brought General Acheampong’s military government to its knees on July 5, 1978, and the restoration of multi-party democratic rule to the country in 1979.
Nana Akufo-Addo went into exile after the referendum, when his life was in danger. But, from Europe, he could be heard constantly on the BBC World Service, vigorously criticising the military rulers back in Ghana, and calling for a return to democracy. He is acknowledged as one of the leaders of the pro-democracy movement in Ghana.
In 1991, Nana Akufo-Addo was the chairman of the Organising Committee of the Danquah-Busia Memorial Club, a club dedicated to the preservation of the memory and ideals of the two great advocates of democracy in Ghana, J. B. Danquah and K. A. Busia, Prime Minister, under the Progress Party government in the second Republic of Ghana.
Nana Akufo-Addo travelled throughout Ghana to establish branches of the club in the grassroots style for which he is known. These branches eventually transformed into local organs of the NPP prior to the 1992 elections, which heralded the reintroduction of democratic governance under the Fourth Republic. In 1992, he was the first national organiser of the NPP and, later that year, campaign manager of the party’s first presidential candidate, Professor Albert Adu Boahen, the man of courage, who broke the “culture of silence” in Ghana, and played such a crucial role in the reintroduction of democracy.
In 1992, Nana Akufo-Addo set up a newspaper, The Statesman, which became the unofficial mouthpiece of the NPP. In 1995, and led the famous “Kume Preko” demonstrations of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a broad-based political pressure group, which mobilised millions of people onto the streets of Ghana, to protest the harsh economic conditions of the Rawlings era. Some pundits in Ghana, This development is believed to be instrumental in re-establishing the NPP as a more formidable force after Prof. Adu Boahen.
Nana Akufo-Addo was elected three times between 1996 and 2008 as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern region of Ghana. From 2001 to 2007, as Cabinet Minister, first as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice for two years, and later as Foreign Minister for five years, Nana Akufo-Addo served in the government of President John Kufuor .
As Attorney-General, he was responsible for the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, which, hitherto, had been used to intimidate the media and criminalise free speech. The repeal has enabled the Ghanaian media become one of the most vibrant and freest in Africa. Under his chairmanship of the Legal Sector Reform Committee, the implementation of the court automation programme was initiated.
As Foreign Minister, he was fully involved in the successful Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peace efforts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Guinea Bissau, and was chairman of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council in 2003.
In 2004, Ghana was elected one of the 15 pioneer members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, a mandate that was renewed at the AU Summit in Khartoum in January 2006. Akufo-Addo was chosen by his peers on the AU Executive Council to chair the Ministerial Committee of 15 that fashioned the Ezulwini Consensus, which defined the African Union’s common position on UN Reforms. He negotiated for the 2007 AU Summit to be held in Accra as part of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, and chaired the AU Executive Council in 2007.
Ghana was elected by her peers to take the non-permanent West African seat on the UN Security Council for 2006-07. In August 2006, Nana Akufo-Addo chaired the meeting of the Security Council, which took the decision that halted Israel’s massive incursions into Lebanon. Again, Ghana was elected to the new UN body, the Human Rights Council, with the highest number of votes—183 out of 191—of any country, and as a pioneer member of another UN body, the Peacebuilding Commission.
Presidential Bids
In October 1998, Nana Akufo-Addo competed for the presidential candidacy of the NPP and lost to John Kufuor, the man who eventually won the December 2000 presidential election, and assumed office as President of Ghana in January 2001. Nana Akufo-Addo was the chief campaigner for candidate Kufuor in the 2000 election, and became the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Kufuor era.
Nana Akufo-Addo resigned from the Kufuor government in July, 2007, to contest for the position of presidential flagbearer of the NPP, for the 2008 elections.
In the December 7, 2008, presidential race, he received, in the first round, more votes than John Atta Mills, the eventual winner. Nana Akufo Addo contested against the NDC candidate, the late Mills’ successor, President John Mahama, and lost in the 2012 general polls.
That election generated considerable controversy, and was finally decided by the Supreme Court in favour of President Mahama. Nana Akufo-Addo is credited with helping to preserve the country’ s peace, by the statesmanlike manner in which he accepted the verdict of the court, at a time of high tension in the country.
In March 2014, Akufo-Addo announced his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the third time ahead of the 2016 election. He was once again elected as the flagbearer of the NPP in October 2014. Nana Akufo- Addo served as Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the South African elections in 2014.
George Agyemang
