Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, born March 29, 1944, is a Ghanaian politician who has been the country’s president since January 7, 2017.
He was re-elected for a second term in 2020, which will end on January 6, 2025.
Akufo-Addo previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 during the Kufuor administration.
Early life and Education
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born on March 29, 1944, in Swalaba, Accra, Ghana, to a famous Ghanaian royal and political family as the son of Adeline and Edward Akufo-Addo.
Akufo-Addo was Ghana’s third Chief Justice from 1966 to 1970.
His father, Edward Akufo-Addo, was Ghana’s third Chief Justice from 1966 to 1970.
The chairman of the 1967-68 Constitutional Commission, and Ghana’s non-executive president from 1970 to 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 gained independence.
Nana Addo is a nephew of Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta and William Ofori Atta.
His granduncle was J. B. Danquah, another member of The Big Six.
Nana Akufo began his basic education at the Government Boys School in Adabraka before moving on to Kinbu in Accra Central.
He moved to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level exams at Lancing College in Sussex, where he got the nickname “Billy”.
He enrolled in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics programme at New College, Oxford, in 1962, but left out shortly afterward.
Akufo-Addo returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy before enrolling in the University of Ghana, Legon, to study economics in 1964, getting a BSc (Econ) degree in 1967.
He afterward entered Middle Temple and trained as a lawyer through the Inns of Court apprenticeship system, where no formal law degree was required.
He was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971.
In July 1975, he was called to the Ghanaian bar.
Akufo-Addo worked with the Paris office of the American law firm Coudert Brothers. In 1979, he co-founded the law firm Prempeh and Co.
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Career
Though he was a prominent member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) as a student at the University of Ghana.
He switched sides following the overthrowing of President Nkrumah in 1966, after which his father, Edward Akufo-Addo, became Ghana’s ceremonial president in 1969.
Akufo-formal Addo’s political involvement began in the late 1970s when he joined the People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ).
In May 1995, he was among a broad group of elites who established the Alliance for Change.
An alliance that organized rallies against neoliberal policies such as the implementation of the Value Added Tax and human rights violations under the Rawlings presidency.
He was elected as the head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on September 7, 2020.
On 2 February 2021, he was re-elected as Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and his term expired on July 3, 2022.
Akufo-Addo stood for president for the first time in 2008, and again in 2012, as the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
He was defeated on both occasions by candidates from the National Democratic Congress.
John Evans Atta Mills in 2008 and John Dramani Mahama in 2012.
He was chosen as the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate for the third time in the 2016 general elections.
This time he defeated incumbent Mahama in the first round.
He won an overall majority in the first round of the 2020 general elections, defeating Mahama for the second time, and was sworn in on January 7, 2021.
Nana Akufo-Addo pledged in December 2021 to follow the Ghanaian constitution’s two-term limit and not run for a third term in 2024.
Personal Life
Akufo-Addo hails from Akropong-Akuapem and Kyebi in the Eastern Region, and both lines of his family are Presbyterian.
He is married to Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the daughter of judge Jacob Hackenburg Griffiths-Randolph, the Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament during the Third Republic.
Before marrying Rebecca, Akufo-Addo had two previous marriages.
Remi Fani-Kayode and Eleanor Nkansah-Gyamenah are their names.
After nearly a decade of marriage, Akufo-marriage Addo’s to Remi ended in divorce, while his marriage to Eleanor ended with her death.
Gyankroma, Edwina, Adriana, Yeboakua, and Valerie are Akufo-four Addo’s biological daughters and one stepdaughter.
His first marriage to Remi, a Nigerian, bore him two daughters, while his second marriage to Eleanor bore him a daughter.
Source: Wikipedia
