Early Life and Education;
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born on 29th March 1944 in Ga-Maami (Accra Central) and in the Nima area of Accra. He received his primary education first at the Government Boys School, Adabraka, and later at the Rowe Road School (now Kimbu), both in Accra Central. He went to England to study for his O-Level and A-Level examinations at Lancing College, Sussex. He began the Philosophy, Economics and Politics course at New College, Oxford in 1962, in 1962, but apparently left soon after. He returned to Ghana in 1962 to teach at Accra Academy Secondary School, before going to read Economics at the University of Ghana, Legon, in 1964, earning a BSc(Econ) degree in 1967. He subsequently studied law in the UK and was called to the English Bar (Middle Temple) in July 1971 and laterly called to the Ghana bar in July 1975.
Family Life:
He is from Kyebi in the Eastern Region. He is married to Mrs Rebecca Akuffo Addo. They have five daughters (four for Rebecca and one for Akufo Addo) and five grandchildren.Three of the "Big Six", the founding fathers of Ghana were his relatives: J.B Danquah (grand uncle), William Ofori-Atta (uncle) and Edward Akufo-Addo (the third Chief Justice of Ghana and later ceremonial President of the Republic from 1969 to 1972), (his father).
Political Career:
In his early thirties, Akufo-Addo was the General Secretary of the broad-based People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice (PMFJ). This group led the "NO" campaign in the UNIGOV referendum of 1978, designed to solicit popular support for a one-party military-led State. In 1991, Akufo-Addo was the chairman of the Organising Committee of the Danquah-Busia Memorial Club, a club dedicated to the preservation of the memory and ideals of the two great advocates of Ghanaian democracy, J. B. Danquah and K. A. Busia, Prime Minister of the Progress Party government of the 2nd Republic of Ghana. In 1992, he was the first national organiser of the NPP and, later that year, campaign manager of the party's first presidential candidate, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen. In 1995, he led the famous "Kume Preko" demonstrations of the Alliance For Change (AFC), a broad-based political pressure group, which mobilised millions of people onto the streets of Ghana to protest the harsh economic conditions of the Rawlings era. Akufo-Addo was elected three times between 1996 and 2008 as Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South constituency in the Eastern region of Ghana. From 2001 to 2007, as Cabinet Minister, first as Attorney-General and Minister for Justice for two years, and later as Foreign Minister for five years.Under his chairmanship of the Legal Sector Reform Committee, the implementation of the court automation programme was initiated. He was chairman of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council in 2003. In 2004, Ghana was elected one of the 15 pioneer members of the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council, a mandate that was renewed at the AU Summit in Khartoum in January 2006. Akufo-Addo was chosen by his peers on the AU Executive Council to chair the Ministerial Committee of 15 that fashioned the Ezulwini Consensus, which defined the African Union’s common position on UN Reforms. In August 2006, Akufo-Addo chaired the meeting of the Security Council which took the decision that halted Israel’s massive incursions into Lebanon. He lost NPP presidential primaries race to H.E john Agyekum Kuffuor in 2000. He represented the NPP in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections and lost both. He currently won the NPP primaries to represent them again for the third time in the 2016 elections.
Interests:
Nana Addo likes watching football and once said during a radio interview that he is a die hard supporter of kumasi Asante Kotoko and also likes Real Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur on the global front.
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