H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo is the 5th President of Ghana’s 4th Republic, and was sworn into office for a  second term on 7th January, 2021.  He has been a prominent champion of human rights, rule of law, justice, freedom, and democracy in Ghana. Indeed, as a lawyer, he undertook many of the most important constitutional cases of the modern era in Ghana, which, inter alia,  protected the independence of the judiciary, the right of the citizen to demonstrate without police permit, and the right of equal access of all political parties to the  State-owned media. 

Nana Akufo-Addo has held numerous positions, and played various active roles in the public life of Ghana. He was a three term Member of Parliament from 1997 to  2008. He served as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice (2001-2003), and as  Minister for Foreign Affairs from April 2003 to July 2007, both under the  government of the former President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency John  Agyekum Kufuor.  

On 23rd December, 2007, he was elected as the New Patriotic Party's presidential  candidate. 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 runoff between him and the National Democratic Congress candidate, the  late John Evans Atta Mills, who eventually won with 50.23% as against Akufo Addo’s 49.77% vote.  

In 2010, he was elected presidential candidate of the NPP, but, again, lost the  2012 election marginally to the incumbent, the then President John Dramani  Mahama. The NPP 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 President Mahama, and called upon all NPP supporters to  accept the decision, even though he and they all disagreed with it.

This act of statesmanship culminated in 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, applauding Akufo-Addo for  preserving Ghana’s peace, and maintaining Ghana’s status as a beacon of  democracy in Africa. 

Nana Akufo-Addo was, on 18th October, 2014, re-elected to lead the NPP into the 2016 general elections. He won the presidential election, after defeating the  incumbent, President John Dramani Mahama. He obtained 53.85% of the total  valid votes cast, as announced by the Electoral Commission, with 44.40% for the  losing incumbent. 

He was re-elected as President of the Republic in the 7th December 2020 election,  for a second term in office, having obtained 51.3% of the popular vote, defeating,  for the second time, his challenger, John Dramani Mahama, former President of  the Republic and NDC presidential candidate.