H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is the 5th President of Ghana’s 4th Republic and has been a prominent champion of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy in Ghana.
As a lawyer, he undertook many of the major constitutional cases of the modern era in Ghana, including protection of the independence of the judiciary; the right of citizens to demonstrate with only notification to the Police and not permission from the police; and the right of equal access of all political parties to State-owned media.
President Akufo-Addo has held numerous positions and played active roles in the public service. He was a three term Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2008. He served as Attorney General and Minister for Justice from 2001-2003, and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from April 2003 to July 2007.
Nana Akufo-Addo has been the flagbearer and presidential candidate of his party, the New Patriotic Party, since 2007 until he became President-elect in December 2016, and inaugurated as President on 7th January 2017.
His victory at the polls has been an uphill task, featuring two defeats at elections in 2008 and 2012.
In the 2008 presidential election, Akufo-Addo led in the first round of voting but failed to obtain the required 50%+1, pushing the election into a second round, in which he lost with 49.77% vote.
Akufo-Addo lost the 2012 election marginally, and his party challenged the results of the election through a petition at the Supreme Court, losing by a 5 - 4 verdict. Akufo-Addo immediately accepted the decision, congratulated the successful candidate, and called upon all NPP supporters to accept the Supreme Court decision, even though he and they all disagreed with it.
This act of statesmanship was acknowledged by the African Union, the European Union, the United Nations, the United States of America, the Christian Council of Ghana and the Chief Imam of Ghana, amongst others, and he was applauded for preserving Ghana’s peace, and maintaining Ghana’s status as a beacon of democracy in Africa.
Thereafter, Nana Akufo-Addo decisively won the 2016 presidential election, with a 53.85% of the total valid votes cast. He was re-elected for a second term in office as President of the Republic in the 2020 election.
Among his many achievements towards a transformational development agenda for Ghana, President Akufo-Addo’s administration is credited with the successful implementation of several policies, including a nationwide free senior high school education, a digitized economy, increased access to healthcare, enhanced food production leading to Ghana becoming self-sufficient in the production of agricultural produce, increased industrial transformation of the Ghanaian economy, and the protection of Ghana’s territorial integrity and security through the retooling of Ghana’s security services.