By Christopher Arko
Accra, Nov. 27, GNA – One of the two front runners of the 2024 presidential election stands at a crossroad of history.
John Dramani Mahama will be the first non consecutive President in the Fourth Republic if wins the polls.
The former President and presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) hit the campaign trail with a slogan “24-hour Economic Policy”, overshadowing other slogans created by his team to pursue an electoral. victory that will return the NDC to power.
Mr Mahama as Vice President became President of Ghana from July 24, 2012 to January 7, 2017, following the death of President John Evans Fiifi Attah Mills. His Vice Presidency lasted from January 2009 to July 2012.
He also represented the people of Bole Bamboi in Parliament from 1997 to 2009 and as Deputy Minister for Communication between 1997 and 1998, becoming the substantive Minister of Communications in 1998.
He was elected in 2012 to serve as President. He sought re-election in the 2016 election but lost to the New Patriotic Party(NPP) candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. This made him the first President in the history of Ghana not to have won a second consecutive term.
Mahama hails from Bole in the Savanna Region.
He born on Saturday, 29 November 1958 in Damongo, in present-day West Gonja District into a polygamous family, where he never lacked the company of siblings and cousins.
His father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama was the first Regional Commissioner for the Northern Region, a feat achieved in the First Republic under Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.
His father also served in Ghana’s Third Republic under Hilla Limann, who was overthrown in 1981 by
Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. His mother is not well known in political circles.
Education:
The young Mahama began his primary school at the Accra Newtown Experimental School (ANT1) before gaining admission to boarding school at Achimota Primary School.
He enrolled at Ghana Secondary School (Tamale, Northern region)and proceeded to the University of Ghana, Legon, receiving a bachelor’s degree in history in 1981 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies in 1986.
He was a member of the Commonwealth Hall (Legon), a hall well known for its students’ activism.
He also studied at the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow in the Soviet Union, specialising in social psychology; he was awarded a postgraduate degree in 1988.
Upon his return to Ghana, he worked as the Information, Culture and Research Officer at the Embassy of Japan in Accra between 1991 and 1995. He moved to Plan International’s Ghana Country Office, where he worked as International Relations, Sponsorship Communications and Grants Manager between 1995 and 1996. In 1993, he participated in a professional training course for Overseas Public Relations Staff, organized by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo.
As Vice-President and President:
On Wednesday, 7 January 2009, John Mahama was sworn into office as the Vice-President of the Republic of Ghana with John Evan Atta Mills as President. He also served as the Chairman of the National Economic Management Team, the Armed Forces Council of Ghana, the Decentralisation and Implementation Committee and the Police Council of Ghana in this capacity.
In line with Ghana’s constitution, Mahama became President of Ghana on 24 July 2012 on the death of President John Atta Mills. In July 2012, he became Ghana’s first president to have served at all levels of political office (Ghanaian and Pan-African MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, vice-president and President).
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) held a Special National Delegates Congress on 30 August 2012 and endorsed President John Dramani Mahama as its 2012 presidential candidate.
He won the December 2012 general election with 50.70 per cent of the total valid votes cast and a 3 per cent winning margin, beating his nearest rival, Nana Akufo-Addo of the main opposition New Patriotic Party, who polled a close 47.74 per cent. This was just barely enough to win the presidency without the need for a runoff.
In addition, Mahama won the majority of valid votes cast in eight out of Ghana’s then ten administrative regions.
Thirteen African Heads of State, one Prime Minister, two vice-presidents and 18 government delegations across the world attended his inaugural and swearing in ceremony at the Black Star Square in Accra on 7 January 2013.
After his investiture, the opposition New Patriotic Party led by its 2012 presidential candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, running mate, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and campaign strategist Jacob Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey, challenged the election results, alleging irregularities, malpractices, omissions and violations.
The petition was heard by nine justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana. After eight months of hearing, the Court on 29 August 2013, dismissed the petition by a majority decision.
Mahama sought a second term at the 2016 general election. He was eligible for a second full term since he ascended to the presidency with only six months remaining in Mills’ term. In Ghana, a vice president who ascends to the presidency is allowed to run for two full terms in his own right if more than half of his predecessor’s term has expired.
He was defeated by Akufo-Addo in a rematch from four years earlier and conceded defeat on election night. Mahama polled 44.4 per cent of the valid votes cast compared to Akufo-Addo’s 53.5 per cent.
2020 and 2024 presidential bids:
In February 2019, Mahama was confirmed as the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress for the 2020 elections, the incumbent president Nana Akufo-Addo who unseated Mahama in the 2016 election, run a campaign of economic revitalization which caught on well with voters due obvious national economic challenges, including falling prices of gold, oil and cocoa exports.
He won the National Democratic Congress primaries by securing an overwhelming 213,487 votes representing 95.23 per cent of the total valid votes cast with the other six contenders managing with about 4 per cent of the votes.
On 4 December 2020, Mahama and incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo, whom he faced both in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections, signed a peace pact to ensure peace before, during, and after the 7 December elections.
Akufo-Addo won the election with 51.6 per cent of the vote.
John Mahama also won the NDC presidential primary on Saturday, May 14, 2023
He polled 297,603 votes representing 98.9 per cent and his closest contender, the former Kumasi Mayor Kojo Bonsu, polled a paltry 3,181 representing 1.1 per cent . A third contestant, Dr Kwabena Dufour, a former Minister of Finance, pulled out of the race on the eve of the elections, rendering it a two horse race.
Family
Mahama is married to Lordina Mahama (née Effah, born March 6, 1963). Mahama has five children named Shafik, Shahid, Sharaf, Jesse and Farida.
He is a Christian, born and raised a Presbyterian but is now a member of the Assemblies of God, Ghana.
His family is multi-faith, consisting mainly of Christians and Muslims.
Over the course of his career, Mahama has written for several newspapers and other publications both locally and internationally, including the Daily Graphic, Ebony, Huffington Post, the Louisville Courier-Journal, the New York Times and The Root.
Apart from his hobbies of reading and. writing, Mahama, also a farmer, has a passionate interest in innovation particularly the use of technology to improve agriculture.
Mahama’s first book, a memoir called “My First Coup d’état: Memories from the Lost Decades of Africa” was published by Bloomsbury on 3 July 2012.
Mahama received an honorary doctorate in the field of Public Administration, from the Ekiti State University of Nigeria, formerly affiliated to the Obafemi Awolowo University in “recognition of his politico-socio economic development of Ghana and Africa at various stages of his political career.”
Later, the same university passed a resolution to name its Faculty of Management Science after him.
Mahama has also attended numerous conferences and won many fellowships, including a study as a visiting scholar at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, United States. He is also a Bill Gates Fellow. He was awarded the Great Cross of the National Order of Benin, the highest award in Benin, by President Yayi Boni.
On October 2022, Mahama was honored by Liberty University with a Global Leadership and Economic Impact Award in Virginia, USA. This award was to celebrate him for governing wisely, “advocating and achieving a consistent track record on economic development, women’s participation in education, and enhancing economic growth.”
GNA
