Nana Akufo-Addo

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 2017.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born in Swalaba, a suburb of Accra, Ghana, on 29 March 1944, to a prominent Ghanaian royal and political family as the son of Adeline and Edward Akufo-Addo.

He began the Philosophy, Politics and Economics course at New College, Oxford, in 1962, but left soon afterwards.

He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at the Accra Academy, before going to read economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc (Econ) degree in 1967.

He subsequently joined the Middle Temple and trained as a lawyer under the apprenticeship system known as the Inns of Court, where no formal law degree was required.

His father Edward Akufo-Addo from Akropong-Akuapem was Ghana's third Chief Justice from 1966 to 1970, chairman of the 1967–68 Constitutional Commission and the non-executive president of Ghana from 1970 till 1972.

Akufo-Addo's maternal grandfather was Nana Sir Ofori Atta, King of Akyem Abuakwa, who was a member of the executive council of the governor of the Gold Coast before Ghana's independence.

He is a nephew of Kofi Asante Ofori-Atta and William Ofori Atta.

His granduncle was J. B. Danquah, another member of The Big Six.

He started his primary education at the Government Boys School and Rowe Road School (now Kinbu), both in Accra Central.

He went to England and continued his education at Holmewood House Preparatory School before studying for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex, where he was nicknamed "Billy" and joined the Anglican faith.

Though known by his friends to have been a vocal supporter of the Convention People's Party (CPP) while a student in the University of Ghana, he switched sides to the rival UP tradition following the overthrow of President Nkrumah in 1966 after which his father, Edward Akufo-Addo became ceremonial president of Ghana in 1969.

Akufo-Addo's participation in politics formally began in the late 1970s when he joined the People's Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ), an organization formed to oppose the General Acheampong-led Supreme Military Council's Union Government proposals.

He was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971.

He was called to the Ghanaian bar in July 1975.

Akufo-Addo worked with the Paris office of the U.S. law firm Coudert Brothers.

In 1979, he co-founded the law firm Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co.

In the 1990s, he formed a civil rights organization called Ghana's Committee on Human and People's Rights.

He was a member of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parliament of the 4th republic representing the Abuakwa Constituency.

In May 1995, he was among a broad group of elites who formed Alliance for Change, an alliance that organized demonstrations against Neo-liberal policies such as the introduction of Value Added Tax and human rights violations of the Rawlings presidency.

The forefront of this demonstration were himself, Abdul Malik, Kwaku Baako and Saifullah Senior minister Victor Newman, Kwasi Pratt Jnr, Dr. Charles Wreko Brobbey among others.

They were joined by about 100,000 other people.

The protest was named "Kumepreko".

As an elite, he vied for leadership positions, the broad-based opposition alliance eventually fell apart.

in the 1996 elections, he polled 28,526 votes out of the 50,263 valid votes cast representing 56.75% over Owuraku Amofa who polled 20,173 votes, Adoo-Aikins who polled 705 votes, Ahmadu Rufai who polled 682 votes and Emmanuel Kofi Tamakloe who polled 177 votes.

In October 1998, Akufo-Addo competed for the a presidential run of the NPP and lost to John Kufuor, who subsequently won the December 2000 presidential election and assumed office as President of Ghana in January 2001.

He won again in the 2000 General Elections with 28,633 votes out of the 45,795 valid votes cast representing 62.50% over Christiana Annor who polled 14,486 votes, Addo-Aikins who polled 1.088 votes, Theresa Stella Amakye who polled 593 votes, Kofi Opoku-Gyamera who polled 519 votes and Isaac Duodu Awah who also polled 506 votes.

Akufo-Addo was the chief campaigner for Kufuor in the 2000 election.

He previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration.

Akufo-Addo first ran for president in 2008 and again in 2012, both times as the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

He lost on both occasions to National Democratic Congress' candidates: John Evans Atta Mills in 2008 and John Dramani Mahama in 2012.

After the 2012 general elections, he refused to concede and proceeded to court to challenge the electoral results, but the Supreme Court of Ghana affirmed Mahama's victory.

He was chosen as the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party for a third time for the 2016 general elections, and this time he defeated incumbent Mahama in the first round (winning with 53.85% of the votes), which marked the first time in a Ghanaian presidential election that an opposition candidate won a majority outright in the first round.

It was also the first time that an opposition candidate had unseated an incumbent president.

Press freedom has also significantly deteriorated under his tenure with Ghana dropping from having the freest media environment in Africa in 2018 to 13th in the 2022 global press freedom ranking by Reporters without Borders (RSF).

His government has been largely described as nationalistic, nepotistic and populist.

He again secured an outright majority in the first round of the 2020 general elections (winning with 51.59% of the vote), defeating Mahama for a second time.

Akufo-Addo's Government initially drew broad popularity from the Ghanaian public; promoting a nationalistic 'Ghana beyond aid' agenda.

The latter part of his tenure has however been mired by the worst financial crises in a generation, with inflation reaching up to 40%.

His Government has attributed this to the Russo-Ukrainian War and the COVID-19 pandemic, however neutral observers point to mismanagement of public funds.