President John Dramani
Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been declared
winner of Ghana’s 2012 presidential poll.
He polled 5,574,761 representing 50.70% as against his
close contender, the presidential
candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Akufo-Addo who
had 5,248,898 of the valid votes
cast, representing 47.74%.
Below is the profile of the president-elect, who will be sworn into
office on January 7th 2013.
President Mahama’s
Profile
President John Dramani Mahama is Ghana’s Fourth President of the
Fourth Republic. He was born on November 29, 1958 at Damango, in
the Northern Region of Ghana.
He is a communication expert, historian, writer, former Member of
Parliament and Minister of State, and immediate former
Vice-President of Ghana.
He ascended to the high office of
Presidency following the death of the incumbent President John
Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday, July 24 in Accra.
President Mahama's father, Mr Emmanuel Adama Mahama was the first Member of Parliament for
the West Gonja Constituency and the first Regional Commissioner of
the Northern Region during Ghana's First Republic.
After completing his education, President Mahama went on to pursue
an additional postgraduate diploma in social psychology at the
Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow, and returned to Ghana from
1991 to 1996. He worked as the Information, Culture and Research
Officer at the Embassy of Japan in Accra.
He moved on to work with PLAN International, Ghana as International
Relations, Sponsorship Communications and Grants Manager.
An eloquent champion of the underprivileged, President Mahama was
first elected to the Parliament of Ghana in 1996 to represent the
Bole/Bamboi Constituency for a four-year term.
In April 1997, President Mahama was
appointed Deputy Minister of Communications. He rose to
become the substantive Minister of Communications by November 1998;
it was a position he held until January 2001 when the National
Democratic Congress (NDC), which was the current ruling party,
handed over power to the newly elected New Patriotic Party's
government.
In 2000, President Mahama was re-elected for another four-year term
as the MP for the Bole/Bamboi Constituency. He was again re-elected
in 2004 for a third term.
From 2001 to 2004, President Mahama served as the Minority
Parliamentary Spokesman for Communications and in 2002 he was
appointed the Director of Communications for the NDC.
That same year, he served as a member of the team of
international observers selected to monitor Zimbabwe's
Parliamentary Elections.
During his tenure as Minister of Communications, President Mahama
also served as the Chairman of the National Communications
Authority, in which capacity he played a key role in stabilizing
Ghana's telecommunications sector after it was deregulated in
1997.
President Mahama also served as a member of the National Economic
Management Team, a founding member of the Ghana AIDS Commission, a
member of the implementation committee of the 2000 National
Population Census, and a deputy chairman of the Publicity Committee
for the re-introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT).
Continuing to expand his interest and involvement in international
affairs, in 2003 President Mahama became a member of the
Pan-African Parliament, serving as the Chairperson of the West
African Caucus.
In 2005 he was, additionally appointed the Minority Spokesman
for Foreign Affairs. He served in these capacities until 2008, when
he was handpicked to become the vice presidential candidate.
President Mahama has seven children. He is married to Mrs.
Lordina Mahama. Despite his often
busy schedule, President Mahama makes it a point to devote time to
his family, his faith and his hobbies.
He is a Christian, who believes in the importance of respect for
and tolerance of, other faiths and
forms of worship in a nation as diverse and peaceful as Ghana.
He has a keen interest in environmental affairs, particularly
the problem of plastic pollution in Africa, which he has committed
himself to addressing during his tenure as Vice President.
President Mahama loves to read. He is also an avid writer and
has had numerous articles published nationally and
internationally.
His first book, My First Coup d'État and Other True Stories From
the Lost Decades of Africa, was published by Bloomsbury on July 3,
2012.
