(This week, we have the profile of a true and courageous African leader, who enjoyed the opportunity to host the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and used it to tell him what he did not expect to hear).
Nana Akufo-Addo received his primary education first at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kimbu), both in Accra. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex. He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at Accra Academy Secondary School, before going to read Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a B.Sc.(Econ) degree in 1967. He subsequently studied law in the UK, and was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971. Nana Akufo-Addo was called to the Ghana Bar in July 1975.
He is a legal luminary and politician, who also succeeded as a businessman. Nana Addo was elected three times between 1996 and 2008 as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern region of Ghana. He served his nation from 2001 to 2007 as Cabinet Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, and later as Foreign Minister during the government of President John Kufuor.
Mr. Akufo-Addo once served as the General Secretary of People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ). In 1992, he was the first National Organiser of the NPP and, later that year became campaign manager of the party’s first presidential candidate, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen.
In March 2014, Mr. 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. The electoral body said he won the election with 53.83% of the votes against Mahama’s 44.4%.
Mr. 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, including Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, attended his inauguration.
Ever since, he has not minced words to urge his conterparts to begin to look inwards in the task of developing the continent. Recently, President Nana Akufo-Addo, told the Western nations to take their aid and shove it. More precisely, he told visiting French President, Emmanuel Macron, “We (Africans) have to get away from this mindset of dependence, and this mindset about what France can do for us. France will do whatever it wants to do for its own sake. It is the responsibility of Africans to work towards developing their continent”.
