Nana Akufo-Addo

Nana Akufo-Addo
President of Ghana
Incumbent
Assumed office January 7, 2017
Vice President	Mahamudu Bawumia
Preceded by	John Mahama
Attorney General of Ghana
In office 7 January 2001 – 1 April 2003
President	John Kufuor
Preceded by	Obed Asamoah
Succeeded by	Papa Owusu-Ankomah
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 1 April 2003 – 1 July 2007
President	John Kufuor
Preceded by	Hackman Owusu-Agyeman
Succeeded by	Akwasi Osei-Adjei
Member of Parliament for Akim Abuakwa South
In office 2005–2009
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Samuel Atta Akyea
Member of Parliament for Abuakwa
In office 1997–2004
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (1944-03-29) 29 March 1944 Accra, Gold Coast (now Ghana)
Political party	New Patriotic Party
Spouse(s)	Rebecca Griffiths-Randolph
Children	5
Residence	Flagstaff House
Education	New College, Oxford University of Ghana Inns of Court School of Law
Website	Campaign website

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (/æˈkʊfoʊ ædˈoʊ/ a-KUU-foh ad-OH; born William Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo;^[1] 29 March 1944) is the President of Ghana, in office since January 2017.^[2] He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007.^[3]

Akufo-Addo first ran for President in 2008 and again in 2012, both times as the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), but was defeated on both occasions by NDC candidates: John Atta Mills in 2008 and John Dramani Mahama in 2012.^[4] He was chosen as the NPP's candidate for a third time in the 2016 elections and defeated Mahama in the first round (winning 53.85% of the votes).^[5]

Early life and education

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born in Accra, Ghana, to a prominent Ghanaian royal and political family as the son of Edward and Adeline Akuffo-Addo.^[6] His father Edward Akufo-Addo from Akropong-Akuapem was Ghana's third Chief Justice from 1966 to 1970, Chairman of the 1967–68 Constitutional Commission and the non-executive President of Ghana from 1970 till 1972.^[6] Akufo-Addo's maternal grandfather was Nana Sir Ofori Atta, King of Akyem Abuakwa who was a member of the Executive Council of the Governor of the Gold Coast before Ghana's independence.^[6] He is a nephew of Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta and William Ofori Atta. His great-uncle was J. B. Danquah, another member of The Big Six.^[7]

He started his primary education at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kinbu) both in Accra Central. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex where he was nicknamed 'Billy'.^[1] He began the Philosophy, Politics and Economics course at New College, Oxford in 1962, but left soon afterwards.^[8] He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach 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. Akufo-Addo was called to the Ghanaian bar in July 1975.^[9] Akufo-Addo worked with the Paris office of the U.S. law firm Coudert Brothers. In 1979, he co-founded the law firm Prempeh and Co.^[10]

Political life

Akufo-Addo's participation in politics began in the late 1970s when he joined the People's Movement for Freedom and Justice,^[11] an organization formed to oppose the General Acheampong-led Supreme Military Council's Union Government proposals.^[12] In May 1995, he was among a broad group of elites who formed Alliance for Change, an alliance that organized demonstrations against neo-liberal policies such as the introduction of Value Added Tax and human rights violations of the Rawlings presidency.^[13] The broad-based opposition alliance later collapsed as the elite leaders jostled for leadership positions.^[9] In the 1990s, he formed a civil rights organization called Ghana's Committee on Human and People's Rights.^[11]

Presidential bids

In October 1998, Akufo-Addo competed for the presidential candidacy of the NPP^[9] and lost to John Kufuor, who subsequently won the December 2000 presidential election and assumed office as President of Ghana in January 2001. Akufo-Addo was the chief campaigner for Kufuor in the 2000 election. He became the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice of the Kufuor era, and later moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).^[14][15]

In 2007, he was the popular candidate tipped to win NPP's presidential primaries.^[16] In 2008, Akufo-Addo represented NPP in a closely contested election against John Atta Mills of NDC.^[17] In the first round of voting, Akufo-Addo tallied 49.13%, leading Atta Mills with a slim margin that was below the constitutional threshold of 50% to become the outright winner.^[18]

Akufo-Addo was again NPP's presidential candidate in the 2012 national elections against major rival NDC's John Mahama, the successor the late Atta Mills. Mahama was declared the winner of the election, an outcome that was legally challenged by Akufo-Addo. The court case generated considerable controversy, and was finally decided by the Ghana Supreme Court in a narrow 5/4 decision in favour of Mahama. Akufo-Addo accepted the verdict in the interest of economic stability and international goodwill.^[6]

In March 2014, Akufo-Addo announced his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the third time ahead of the 2016 election. In the NPP primary conducted in October 2014, he was declared victor with 94.35% of the votes.^[19] Akufo-Addo also served as Chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the South African elections in 2014.^[20][21]

He focused his campaign on the economy, promising to stabilize the country's foreign exchange rate and to reduce unemployment levels.^[22] On 9 December 2016, sitting president Mahama conceded defeat to Akufo-Addo.^[23] Akufo-Addo won the election with 53.83% of the votes against Mahama's 44.4%.^[24]

President of Ghana

Inauguration

Akufo-Addo took office on 7 January 2017. His inauguration was held at Black Star Square in Accra. Twelve presidents from African and European countries attended the ceremony, including Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria.^[25][26][27]

Plagiarism scandal

Akufo-Addo faced global backlash, especially on social media, for plagiarizing parts of his inauguration speech, having lifted passages, word-for-word, from previous inaugural addresses given by American presidents John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush as well as prepared remarks given by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at a 2015 United States Institute of Peace event.^{[28][29][30][31][32][33]} After the scandal came to light, his press office issued an apology with his communication director describing the situation as a "complete oversight and never deliberate." ^[34][35][36] However, after the mea culpa, it was found that Akufo-Addo had also plagiarized portions of his 2013 concession speech after the Supreme Court of Ghana upheld the 2012 electoral victory of President John Mahama. In that speech, lines were lifted verbatim from United States Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential concession speech given after the US Supreme Court verdict.^[37][38][39]

Personal life

He is from Kyebi and Akropong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region. He is married to Rebecca Akufo-Addo (née Griffiths-Randolph), the daughter of judge, Jacob Hackenburg Griffiths-Randolph, the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana during the Third Republic.^[40] They have five daughters.^[41][42]

See Also

• Cabinet of Nana Akuffo-Addo

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

• GhanaWeb: Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo biography.
• EIN News: Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
• Ghpage: Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo family and biography