As over 17 million Ghanaians head to the polls on December 7 2020, to elect their next president and some 275 MPs, attention is focused on the two leading contenders out of the 12 cleared by the Electoral Commission (EC) to contest for the highest office in the land.
This year’s general election is Ghana’s eighth successive elections but the country’s presidents in recent times have emerged from either the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
The ruling NPP had John Agyekum Kuffuor (2000 – 2008), while the flag bearer Nana Akufo-Addo (2016-2020), while the main opposition NDC produced late Jerry John Rawlings (1992 – 2000), late John Evans Atta Mills (2012 – 2016) and John Dramani Mahama (2012 – 2016).
Apart from the candidates of the two dominant political parties, the other 10 presidential candidates include a former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, who is the candidate of the National Democratic Party (NDP).
The other two women are Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) and Brigette Akosua Dzogbenuku of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP).
Alfred Kwame Asisedu Walker is vying as an independent candidate.
However, the contest is between the candidates of the two leading political parties and the outcome is difficult to predict despite the results of a recent poll conducted in Ghana, which favours the NPP given that their profiles are so intimidating.
The incumbent President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, 76, was born on March 29, 1944 in Ga Mashie in Accra to a Ghanaian politician, lawyer and independence fighter Edward Akufo-Addo.
He studied economics at the University of Ghana, graduating in 1967 before enrolling at law school in the UK where he was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in 1971 and the Ghana Bar in 1975.
He established the law firm, Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co. in 1979.
Before joining the NPP in 1992, Akufo Addo was known in Ghana for championing the fight for human rights, the rule of law, justice, the independence of the Judiciary and media freedom and democracy.
He served as a Member of Parliament representing, Abuakwa South Constituency in the Eastern region for three consecutive terms from 1996 to 2007.
Akufo-Addo was in 2001 appointed Attorney-General and Minister of Justice under President John Agyekum Kufuor, where he spearheaded the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, which criminalized free speech, and also initiated other reforms in the legal processes of the country including the automation of the courts.
In 2003, he was reassigned to the foreign ministry as Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs where he was instrumental in brokering peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Guinea Bissau, as the Chairman of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council.
Nana Akufo-Addo resigned his position in 2007 and contested the December 7, 2008 under the NPP.
Although he won the first round of the country’s presidential election, with 49 percent of the votes cast, but he eventually lost the second round of voting to his challenger Professor Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who beat him narrowly in the polls.
He contested the 2012 Presidential elections in which he challenged Mr. John Mahama of the NDC and lost.
However it was third tiem lucky for Mr. Akufo-Addo in 2016 against the same incumbent, wresting the presidency from Mahama.
Four years on 62-year-old Mahama born on November 29, 1958 is poised for a comeback.
A communication expert, historian, and writer, Mahama was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2009 and Minister of Communications from 1998 to 2001.
A member of the NDC, he served as Ghana’s vice-president but was catapulted to the presidency on 24 July 2012 when President John Atta Mills died in office that year.
Mahama is the first vice president to take over the presidency following the death of a sitting Ghanaian president and the first head of state of Ghana to have been born after independence.
Mahama is one of Africa’s most-followed leaders on the social networking sites, Twitter and Facebook.
In May 2013, he stated that all of West Africa is under the threat of Islamist militancy.
On March 30, 2014, he was elected to preside over ECOWAS. and also as Chairperson of the African Union’s (AU’s) High-Level African Trade Committee (HATC).
On January 21, 2016 on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mahama became co-chair of the Sustainable Development Goals Advocates group which consists of 17 eminent persons assisting the UN Secretary-General in the campaign to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that world leaders unanimously adopted in September 2015.
With a mandate to support the Secretary-General in his efforts to generate momentum and commitment to achieve the SDGs by 2030, the SDG Advocates have been working to promote the universal sustainable development agenda, to raise awareness of the integrated nature of the SDGs, and to foster the engagement of new stakeholders in the implementation of these Goals.
In December 2016, he was part of ECOWAS mediators who travelled to Banjul to resolve the post-election impasse in The Gambia when the defeated incumbent, Yahya Jammeh had refused to make way for declared winner, Adama Barrow.
GIK/APA