The people of Ghana over the weekend elected the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama as the nation’s leader.
He beat the candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and current Vice President, Mahamudu Bawumia.
As Ghana gears up for a new administration under Mahama, Daily Sun brings you things to know about him.
Background/Family Life
Mahama was born on November 29, 1958, in Damongo, an area in present-day West Gonja District, and holds the record of the first President of Ghana to be born after the West African nation’s declaration of independence on March 6, 1957.
He is a member of the Gonja ethnic group in the Savanna Region of Ghana. Born into a politically active family, his father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama, served as a member of Parliament as well as a Regional Commissioner in the government of Ghana’s first President, Kwame Nkrumah.
Mahama is married to Lordina Mahama and has five children named Shafik, Shahid, Sharaf, Jesse and Farida. He is the elder brother of Ibrahim Mahama, the millionaire businessman who owns Dzata Cement
Education
Mahama attended primary school at the elite Achimota School in Accra and got his secondary education at the Ghana Secondary School in Tamale.
He bagged a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Ghana, Legon in 1981 and obtained a postgraduate degree in communication from the same university in 1986.
He was a history teacher in a secondary for two years during which he pursued a postgraduate degree in Social Psychology from the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow, Russia, which was awarded in 1988.
Political journey
A consummate politician of over three decades, Mahama’s first elective post was in the Ghanaian parliament to represent the Bole/Bamboi Constituency in 1996.
He was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications in April 1997 followed by promoted to the post of Minister of Communications in November 1998. He served in that position until the NDC handed over to the new NPP administration in January 2001.
Mahama was re-elected for a fresh four-year term as MP for Bole/Bamboi Constituency in 2000 and another term in 2004. As MP, he served on the Standing Orders Committee as well as the Transport, Industry, Energy, Communications, Science and Technology Committee.
In 2003, he became a member of the Pan-African Parliament and served as the Chairperson of the West African Caucus until 2011. He served as the Minority Parliamentary Spokesman for Communications from 2001 to 2004 and Director of Communications for the NDC.
Telecoms revolution
As Minister of Communications, Mahama also served as the Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA). In this latter capacity, he played a pivotal role in stabilising Ghana’s telecommunications sector after its deregulation in 1997.
Vice-Presidential stint
Mahama was sworn into the office of Vice-President of Ghana with John Atta Mills as President on January 7, 2009.
In a situation similar to Dr Goodluck Jonathan’s in Nigeria, Mahama was sworn in as President on July 24, 2012, following the demise of Atta Mills.
With his inauguration, he became the first president in Ghana’s history to have served at all levels of political office (Ghanaian and Pan-African MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice-President and President).
Second term
The President-elect is returning to the Jubilee House, Ghana’s presidential palace, for his second term on January 7, 2025.
He first served as president from July 24, 2012, to January 7, 2017. His emergence in 2012 followed the demise of his predecessor, John Atta Mills.
EKSU doctorate
Mahama was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Administration (honoris causa) by the Ekiti State University (EKSU) in Nigeria. The institution’s Faculty of Management Science is also named after him.