H.E. JOHN DRAMANI MAHAMA
Introduction: President John Dramani Mahama is a communication expert, historian, and writer. He’s the current President of the Republic of Ghana. Before that, he served as the Vice President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012 and took office as President on 24th July 2012, following the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills. He was elected to serve his first full term as President in December 2012. President Mahama was endorsed on the 21st of November 2015 by members of the ruling National Democratic Congress to represent NDC in the 2016 General elections
Background President John Dramani Mahama was born in Damongo, now called the Damongo-Daboya Constituency of Ghana, on November 29, 1958. His father was the late Emmanuel Adama Mahama, who was the first Member of Parliament for the West Gonja Constituency and the first Regional Commissioner of the Northern Region under President Kwame Nkrumah.
Education John Dramani Mahama attended primary school at the Achimota School in Accra and, on completion, moved to the Northern Region to attend the Ghana Secondary School in Tamale, where he studied for his Ordinary and Advanced level GCE Certificates. Thereafter, he attended the University of Ghana, Legon, where he read History and received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1981. As a student, he was a member of Commonwealth Hall. He later undertook his postgraduate studies in communication at the University of Ghana, in the School of Communication Studies, which he completed in 1986. He then studied for a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Psychology from the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow.
Career John Mahama completed his postgraduate diploma studies in Moscow, returned to Ghana in 1991, and became the Information, Culture, and Research Officer at the Embassy of Japan in Accra. After working at the Embassy of Japan, he moved on to become the International Relations, Sponsorship, Communication, and Grants Manager at the Ghana Office of PLAN International.
Member of Parliament Mahama was first elected to the Parliament of Ghana in the 1996 elections to represent the Bole/Bamboi Constituency for a four-year term. In April 1997, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications.He became the substantive Minister of Communications in November 1998, a position he held until January 2001 when the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the then ruling party, handed over power to the New Patriotic Party’s government.In 2000, John Mahama was re-elected for another four-year term as the Member of Parliament for the Bole/Bamboi Constituency.He was again re-elected in 2004 for a third term. From 2001 to 2004, Mahama served as the Minority Spokesman for Communications. In 2002, he was appointed the Director of Communications for the NDC. In the same year, he served as a member of the team of International Observers selected to monitor Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Elections. As an MP, he was a member of the Standing Orders Committee. He also served on the Parliament’s Transport, Industry, Energy, Communications, Science and Technology Committees. Minister and Vice-President Mahama served as Deputy Communications Minister between April 1997 and November 1998. During his tenure as Minister of Communications, Mahama also served as the Chairman of the National Communications Authority. In that capacity, he played a key role in stabilizing Ghana’s telecommunications sector after deregulation in 1997. As a minister, he was a founding member of the Ghana AIDS Commission, a member of the implementation committee of the 2000 National Population Census, and a deputy chairman of the Publicity Committee for re-introducing the Value Added Tax (VAT). In 2003, Mahama became a member of the Pan-African Parliament, serving as the Chairperson of the West African Caucus until 2011. He was also a member of the European and Pan African Parliaments’ Ad-hoc Committee on Cooperation. In 2005, he was additionally appointed the Minority Spokesman for Foreign Affairs. On 7 January 2009, Mahama became the Vice-President of Ghana. He also served as the Chairman of the National Economic Management Team, the Armed Forces Council of Ghana, the Decentralization and Implementation Committee, and the Police Council of Ghana in this capacity. Following the death of His Excellency Professor John Evans Atta Mills on the 24th of July 2012, John Mahama was sworn into office on the same day by the Chief Justice. He assumed the role of Head of Government and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ghana Office. President of Ghana John Mahama was endorsed as the 2012 Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on 30 August 2012 at a delegates’ conference where he polled 2,767 votes, representing 99.6 percent of the total votes. On 7th of December 2012, Mahama was declared the winner of the presidential election with 50.70% of the total valid votes cast (a 3% winning margin), beating his nearest rival, Nana Akufo-Addo of the main opposition, New Patriotic Party, who polled a close 47.74%. Mahama won the most valid votes in eight of Ghana’s ten administrative regions. On 30th March
Family Life and Interests President Mahama is a Christian and has been married to Mrs. Lordina Mahama for over twenty years. They have eight (8) children. John Mahama is an avid reader, author, and historian. Throughout his career, he has written for several publications and published his first book, a memoir entitled “My First Coup D’etat and Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa.” President Mahama is also interested in technology, agriculture, and football.
Honors and Awards John Dramani Mahama received an honorary doctorate in Public Administration from the Ekiti State University of Nigeria, formerly affiliated with the Obafemi Awolowo University. Later, the same university passed a resolution to name its Faculty of Management Science after him. The Cuban government conferred A friendship Medal on John Dramani Mahama, recognizing his relentless advocacy for the Cuban cause. He was awarded the African Servant Leadership Award by the Graduate School of Governance and Leadership, an offshoot of the Pan-African Institute of Governance and Leadership Studies. In 2013, he was conferred with the Africa Award for Excellence in Food Security and Poverty Reduction by the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA). The most recent of his awards took place in March 2016 at the University of Aberdeen special convocation, where President John Mahama was conferred with an honorary degree in Doctors of Laws (LLD). Mr. Mahama has also attended numerous conferences and won many fellowships, including a study as a visiting scholar at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. He is also a Bill Gates Fellow. President Yayi Boni awarded him the Great Cross of the National Order of Benin.
Source: embasyofghana.org
