Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who was on December 23, 2007, chosen to be the Presidential Candidate – flag bearer - of Ghana’s ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has one short, pithy, telling slogan: “I believe in Ghana.”

That, surely, expresses his abiding faith in the capacity of the nation, in general, and of the citizens of Ghana, in particular, to surmount all obstacles and to soar to greater heights. Nana Akufo-Addo has the confidence that he is the one citizen among the many aspiring to be President, who can take Ghana “to the Next Level.”

Nana Akufo-Addo, who was born in Accra on March 29, 1944, will be competing for the presidency in the December 7, 2008 elections with his long-time colleague, former law lecturer, former Vice-President, and third-time flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John Evans Atta Mills; Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, flag bearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) who, with Nana Akufo-Addo was a member of the “all-inclusive government” of President John Kufuor; and Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention, who is making his fourth bid for the presidency.  A couple of other aspirants are expected to join the race in the course of the year.

Nana Akufo-Addo is considered by many to be the most popular living Ghanaian politician today, besides President John Kufuor and former President Jerry Rawlings. He beat a strong field comprising an unprecedented 16 worthy party colleagues to secure the nomination.  The New Patriotic Party was looking for a popular, marketable, winnable, “complete party man” and, according to the verdict of the 2,300 congress delegates from across the entire country, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was the one who fitted the bill.

At the end of the first round of voting, Nana had collected a respectable 47.9% of the votes cast in the keenly contested election. But that was still a couple of percentage points short of the 50%+1 he needed for outright victory. The absence of a “one touch” win called for a second round of voting, unless the second placed candidate, Alan John Kyerematen, who trailed him with a little under 33%, conceded defeat. 

After a brief period of intense discussion and negotiation, when it had become clear that there was no way the second best candidate could get near, let alone whittle down the lead of, and overtake, the front-runner, Mr Alan Kyerematen conceded victory to Nana Akufo-Addo. 

Mr Kyerematen’s concession was a happy signal that sparked off a spontaneous explosion of celebration. For, not only had a suitable, popular, marketable candidate been chosen, it was also a signal for the deserved end of a marathon, 27 hours of sleepless work for the 2,300 weary electors.

So Ghana’s ruling party is now looking forward to the day when, for the first time in Ghana’s political history, an out-going President would personally hand over the presidency to a newly elected person.  President Jerry John Rawlings refused to take part in the elaborate ceremony of handing over to his successor on January 7, 2001.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo comes from a long line of political leaders.  His maternal grandfather, Nana Sir Ofori Atta I, was a major political player in the Gold Coast until his death in 1943 and, in association with some other prominent traditional leaders, used his enormous influence to pressurise the colonial administration to effect numerous social, political and economic changes in the country. 

Obviously Nana Akufo-Addo must cherish this heritage. “I come from a background where public service is considered a duty, and where privilege and good fortune demand even greater commitment to the common good,” he says. “Generations of my forbears established this rich tradition of public service, of which I am proud and which has been the source of constant inspiration.”

Of the “Big Six,” the six personalities who, in 1947, launched Ghana’s definitive political struggle for independence from colonial rule, three were his close relatives. Their acknowledged leader, Dr Joseph Boakye Danquah (a brother of Nana Ofori Atta I) was his great uncle.  Mr William Ofori Atta was his maternal uncle.  Mr Edward Akufo-Addo, later to be Ghana’s third Chief Justice and President of the short-lived Second Republic, was his father. And Nana’s mother, Mrs Adeline Akufo-Addo, never tired of reminding her children that she was the only woman in the entire country to have appeared before the 1948 Watson Commission that laid the ground for the country’s constitutional development.

Almost invariably in the early days, meetings of the “Big Six” were held at Mr Akufo-Addo’s house in Central Accra, which also served as headquarters of Ghana’s first pre-independence political party – the United Gold Coast Convention. Nana Ado Dankwah must have sensed the import of the goings and comings, even at that young age.

Nana Akufo-Addo began his political career with a brief but intense flirtation with Marxism while a student of Economics at the University of Ghana in the early 1960s and is said to have been one of the most vociferous of the persuasive Marxist group.  However, a spell of study and work in the UK and France must have worked a transformation.  In 1975 he returned home with a 180º reversal in orientation; now, he was on the old path beaten by his forbears in the Danquah/Busia tradition, ready to play the pivotal role in the various genuine moves to halt the entrenchment of dictatorship and military rule.

Leading the “NO” campaign against moves by Gen. Kutu Acheampong from 1976 to establish “Union Government” as a ruse for installing one-party dictatorship was the broad-based People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ). Nana Akufo-Addo was the supremely effective General Secretary of this movement.

The PMFJ was formed by political stalwarts such as Lt-Gen. Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa; veterans William Ofori-Atta, Komla Gbedema and K.S.P. Jantuah; Prof. Adu Boahen, Nii Armaah Amarteifio (Dr NO), Sam Okudzeto, Dr Obed Asamoah, Jones Ofori-Atta, Johnny Hansen, and others. Nana’s extraordinary organisational skills and relentless hard work have been largely credited with the ultimate fall of the Acheampong regime in 1978 and the restoration of multi-party rule the following year.  

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Nana Akufo-Addo used the law courts to defend the Constitutions of the Third and Fourth Republics, and to promote human rights and civil liberties, with celebrated cases such as Tuffuor v Attorney-General, and NPP v GBC. His reputation as one of the finest legal brains in the country was enough to fill the public galleries whenever the Supreme Court sat to hear such cases.

Nana was one of the founders, promoters, and main financial backers of the new Patriotic Party at the initial stages.  As Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Danquah-Busia Club he travelled to every part of the country, establishing branches that were quickly transformed into local organs of the new party when the ban on party political activity was lifted, shortly before the November 1992 elections.

He was the Campaign Manager for the NPP’s presidential candidate, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen in 1992. When the party lost the presidential elections, which it had been expected to win, it saw in the event the hand of massive rigging by the incumbent military regime, whose leader, Jerry Rawlings, was also contesting. But the party did the commendable thing of refraining from leading the masses of people onto the streets in protest. It chose instead to write a book and, with other parties, to boycott the parliamentary elections.

Nana Akufo-Addo was leader of the team that researched, compiled, wrote and published The Stolen Verdict.  It was a solid volume full of details of numerous, specific instances of state-supported electoral malpractices on a gargantuan scale – complete with photographic illustrations, some of which depicted children of ten years or less casting the vote.  The advocacy espoused in the book and its vigorous pursuit thereafter led to substantial reforms in the electoral system.

Against heavy odds bolstered by massive government sponsorship and support for his main opponent, Nana won the Abuakwa South Constituency seat in the 1996 election and has been a Member of Parliament since January 1997. His presentations in Parliament on all manner of issues, in opposition and in government, have been considered models of well reasoned advocacy. His relentless advocacy against human rights violations led to the formation, with others from the full spectrum of the political landscape, of the AFC – Alliance for Change – which in 1995 brought onto the streets of Ghana’s cities almost one million Ghanaians to protest against the economic and social and other policies of the NDC government.

Nana Akufo-Addo was the first Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in President Kufuor’s government, which had won the 2000 elections and assumed power in January 2001. He spent the two years in that office pursuing numerous reforms in the country’s legal system, that had been bastardised by many years of military dictatorship. Among those reforms were the establishment of the Commercial Court, the Business Law Division of the Ministry of Justice, putting into operation the Fast Track Court; sponsorship of the Domestic Violence Bill, repeal of the Criminal Libel Law and the Law that set up the National Reconciliation Commission.

Nana Akufo-Addo was appointed Foreign Minister in March 2003 and was considered a most brilliant choice to implement President Kufuor’s diplomatic initiatives.  The large boost to Ghana’s image that has happened since then is credited largely to the diplomatic and negotiating skills and the high level of efficiency that he brought to bear on his work as Foreign Minister of Ghana.

It is recalled that Nana Akufo-Addo, As Foreign Minister, played effective roles in the restoration of normalcy to Liberia, Guinea Bissau and Cote d’Ivoire.  In 2004 Ghana was elected one of the pioneer members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, and this mandate was renewed at the AU Summit in Khartoum in January 2006.

Ghana was elected by her peers to take the non-permanent West African seat on the UN Security Council for 2006-2007.  In August 2006 Nana Akufo-Addo chaired the meeting of the Security Council which took the decision that halted Israel’s massive incursions into Lebanon.

Again, Ghana was elected to the new UN body, the Human Rights Council, with the highest number of votes – 183 out of 191 -  of any country, and as a pioneer member of another UN body, the Peace Building Commission.

As Foreign Minister of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo was chosen by his peers on the AU Executive Council to chair the Ministerial Committee of 15 that fashioned the “Ezulwini Consensus” which defined Africa’s common position on UN reforms. He negotiated for the 2007 AU Summit to be held in Accra as part of Ghana’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.

Nana Akufo-Addo has always played down his achievements as Foreign Minister, preferring, rightly, to give the credit to the President in whose government he served.  He describes the government of President Kufuor as a ”transforming force” that has widened the frontiers of good governance, introduced greater press freedom, a more structured attack against corruption, unprecedented macro-economic stability and more investment in the social sector, especially health and education – with the setting up of National Health Insurance (NHI), implementation of the Free, Compulsory, Universal, Basic Education (FCUBE) programme, and greater emphasis on human resource development.

The man who believes in Ghana sums up his beliefs:  “I believe in equal opportunity and a fair deal for everyone. I believe in caring for the vulnerable, in a society that respects everyone. I believe in the Ghanaian as a leading citizen of an integrated, united Africa. And, most of all, I believe in God”