Nana Akufo-Addo


William Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who served as the 13th president of Ghana from January 2017 to January 2025. He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the administration of then-president John Kufuor.
Akufo-Addo first ran for president in the year 2008 and again in 2012, both times as the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party. He lost on both occasions to National Democratic Congress' candidates: John Evans Atta Mills in 2008 and John Dramani Mahama in 2012. After the 2012 general elections, he refused to concede and proceeded to court to challenge the electoral results, but the Supreme Court of Ghana affirmed Mahama's victory.
He was chosen as the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party for a third time for the 2016 general elections, and this time he defeated incumbent John Dramani Mahama in the first round, which marked the first time in a Ghanaian presidential election that an opposition candidate won a majority outright in the first round. It was also the first time that an opposition candidate had unseated an incumbent president. He again secured an outright majority in the first round of the 2020 general elections, defeating Mahama for a second time.
Akufo-Addo's government initially drew broad popularity from the Ghanaian public, promoting a nationalistic 'Ghana beyond aid' agenda. The latter part of his tenure, however, was marked by the worst Ghanaian financial crises in a generation, with inflation reaching up to 40% in both 2022 and 2023. His government attributed this to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine, but many observers pointed to mismanagement of public funds. As he was term-limited, he peacefully handed over power to the NDC's Mahama on 7 January 2025 after the incumbent NPP lost power amid the unpopularity of his administration.

Early life and education

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1944, to Adeline Akufo-Addo and Edward Akufo-Addo, members of the prominent Ofori-Atta family. 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. 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. He is a nephew of Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta and William Ofori Atta. His granduncle was J. B. Danquah, another member of The Big Six.
He started his primary education at the Government Boys School and Rowe Road School, both in Accra Central. He went to England and continued his education at Holmewood House Preparatory School before studying for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex, where he was nicknamed "Billy" and joined the Anglican faith. He began the Philosophy, Politics and Economics course at New College, Oxford, in 1962, but left soon afterwards. He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy, before going to read economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc degree in 1967. He subsequently joined the Middle Temple and trained as a lawyer under the apprenticeship system known as the Inns of Court, where no formal law degree was required. He was called to the English Bar in July 1971. He was called to the Ghanaian bar in July 1975. Akufo-Addo worked with the Paris office of the U.S. law firm Coudert Brothers. In 1979, he co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co.

Political career

Though known by his friends to have been a vocal supporter of the Convention People's Party while a student in the University of Ghana, he switched sides to the rival United Party tradition following the overthrow of President Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 after which his father, Edward Akufo-Addo became ceremonial president of Ghana in 1969. Akufo-Addo's participation in politics formally began in the late 1970s when he joined the People's Movement for Freedom and Justice, an organization formed to oppose the General Acheampong-led Supreme Military Council's Union Government proposals. 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. At the forefront of this demonstration were himself, Abdul Malik, Kwaku Baako and Saifullah Senior minister Victor Newman, Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey among others. They were joined by about 100,000 other people. The protest was named "Kume Preko". As an elite, Akufo-Addo vied for leadership positions; the broad-based opposition alliance eventually fell apart. In the 1990s, he formed a civil rights organization called Ghana's Committee on Human and People's Rights.
He was a member of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parliament of the 4th republic representing the Abuakwa constituency.
In the 1996 elections, he polled 28,526 votes out of the 50,263 valid votes cast representing 56.75% over Owuraku Amofah who polled 20,173 votes, Adoo-Aikins who polled 705 votes, Ahmadu Rufai who polled 682 votes and Emmanuel Kofi Tamakloe who polled 177 votes. He won again in the 2000 General Elections with 28,633 votes out of the 45,795 valid votes cast representing 62.50% over Christiana Annor who polled 14,486 votes, Addo-Aikins who polled 1,088 votes, Theresa Stella Amakye who polled 593 votes, Kofi Opoku-Gyamera who polled 519 votes and Isaac Duodu Awah who also polled 506 votes.

Presidential bids

In October 1998, Akufo-Addo competed for the a presidential run of the NPP 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.
In 2007, he was the popular candidate tipped to win the New Patriotic Party's presidential primaries. In 2008, Akufo-Addo represented the NPP in a closely contested election against John Atta Mills of NDC. 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.
Akufo-Addo ran again as the NPP's presidential candidate in the 2012 national elections against NDC's John Mahama, successor to 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.
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. Akufo-Addo also served as chair of the Commonwealth Observer Mission for the South African elections in 2014.
He focused his campaign on the economy, promising to stabilize the country's foreign exchange rate and to reduce unemployment levels.
On 9 December 2016, sitting president Mahama conceded defeat to Akufo-Addo. Akufo-Addo won the election with 53.83% of the votes against Mahama's 44.4%.
Akufo-Addo announced his intention to run for re-election by picking a nomination form as flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party ahead of the 2020 general elections. On 9 December 2020, Akufo-Addo was declared the winner of the 7 December election after securing a majority of 51.59% of the vote, just enough to win re-election in a single round. In December 2021, Akufo-Addo pledged to respect the two-term limit mandated in the Ghanaian constitution and not run for a third term in 2024.

President of Ghana (2017–2025)

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.
Akufo-Addo faced 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. 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." 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.

Education sector

In September 2017, Akufo-Addo launched the Free Senior High School policy, which will make secondary high school free for students in Ghana. The president states it is a "necessary investment in the nation's future workforce" and will help parents who are unable to pay for their children's education due to financial hardships. The program met with positive reaction from the nation, parents and students were excited and fervent, but private schools opposed to the program state it will decrease the number of students enrolling in their system.
In August 2023, Akufo-Addo cited the 2022 WASSCE success as proof of his education policies' effectiveness. During a speech at Queen Girls Senior High School in the Western North region, the President credited last year's WASSCE results, the best in eight years, to the success of the Free Senior High School program and related initiatives. Akufo-Addo celebrated notable improvements in the 2022 WASSCE results, with higher scores in English, Integrated Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies. He also commended the 2021 student cohort for adapting to the double track system.