John Mahama: The veteran taking a second shot at Ghana’s presidency

John Dramani Mahama has been Ghana’s president as soon as earlier than – and now he’s again for an additional punt on the high job.

The 65-year-old led Ghana from 2012 to 2017 and is without doubt one of the West African nation’s most skilled politicians. He has served in any respect ranges of workplace, as an MP, deputy minister, minister, vice-president and president.

Long earlier than it turned a profession, politics performed a big position in Mahama’s childhood. When Mahama was simply seven, his father, a authorities minister, was jailed throughout a navy coup and later went into exile.

Personal trials like this seem in Mahama’s acclaimed writing – he has been printed by various worldwide information retailers and his memoir, My First Coup D’etat, gained reward from two African literary greats, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe.

When penning his manifesto for this yr’s elections, Mahama advised voters Ghana “is headed in the wrong direction and needs to be rescued”.

But critics argue he is probably not the correct man for the job, provided that his administration was hit by financial issues and a string of corruption scandals.

Mahama’s journey started in 1958, when he was born within the northern city of Damongo. After just a few years he moved to the capital, Accra, to reside together with his father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama.

In My First Coup d’Etat, Mahama Jr describes himself as “an observant child with an active imagination and an unbounded curiosity”.

He was additionally comparatively privileged. The household had one other dwelling within the city of Bole, which on the time was not on the nationwide grid. Mahama’s mother and father have been capable of put money into a diesel generator for his or her six-bedroom home, that means theirs was the one home within the city with lights.

Local residents would collect outdoors the home when evening fell, captivated by the curious orange glow.

The future president attended Achimota boarding college, a prestigious establishment identified for educating heads of state like Ghana’s Jerry John Rawlings, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first prime minister after it gained independence from the UK.

It was at Achimota, in 1966, that Mahama heard there had been a coup. Military and police personnel had stormed Ghana’s authorities buildings, seizing energy from Nkrumah, who was away on a overseas journey.

As updates trickled in, Mahama turned more and more anxious – he had heard no phrase from his father. Seven-year-old Mahama feared his father had been killed due to his proximity to Nkrumah.

It turned out his father had been imprisoned – he would stay in jail for roughly a yr.

In 1981, after a second navy coup, Mahama’s father fled the nation for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Mahama spent his twenties and thirties learning – he acquired a Communication Studies diploma from the University of Ghana earlier than learning at Moscow’s Institute of Social Sciences.

Mahama famous that his keep in Russia, then a part of the Soviet Union, alerted him to “the imperfections of the socialist system”.

After returning to Ghana in 1996, Mahama adopted his father’s footsteps into politics.

He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) occasion and from there, scaled the political ranks. He zeroed in on the NDC’s messaging, taking on roles because the parliamentary spokesperson and minister for communication.

In 13 years, Mahama labored his method as much as grow to be vice-president, second-in-command beneath President John Atta Mills.

But after simply three years in workplace, Mills died unexpectedly on the age of 68.

Just hours after this tragedy, a 58-year-old Mahama was sworn in as president. In his speech, Mahama described the day because the “saddest” in Ghana’s historical past.

General elections have been held later that yr and voters selected to maintain Mahama in workplace.

So what sort of chief is Mahama? Franklin Cudjoe, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Centre for Policy and Education, advised the BBC the previous president was an “excellent communicator”.

While political scientist Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko described Mahama as a “pragmatist”.

Mahama has the it-factor however solely in a local weather the place “politics is driven by reality and intelligent communication”, mentioned Dr Sefa-Nyarko, who lectures on African management at King’s College London.

But in up to date Ghana, many citizens are captivated by overambitious pledges, in keeping with Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko, which suggests pragmatic Mahama is “not able to charm the populace much”.

When campaigning to remain in energy forward of the 2016 elections, Mahama highlighted varied infrastructure tasks accomplished beneath his administration, similar to these within the transportation, well being, and training sectors.

But beneath his watch, Ghanaians additionally skilled an ailing economic system and widespread energy cuts. Mahama was nicknamed “Mr Dumsor” in reference to the blackouts – “dum” means off and “sor” means on within the native Twi language.

His time period was additionally blighted by corruption scandals. For occasion, a UK court docket discovered that aviation big Airbus had used bribes to safe contracts with Ghana for navy planes between 2009 and 2015 – however Ghana’s Office of the Special Prosecutor concluded there was no proof that Mahama was concerned in any corrupt actions himself.

There are “lingering issues” surrounding these graft scandals – ones that the present voters will “remember”, Mr Cudjoe mentioned.

But he additionally factors out that, in keeping with Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), corruption turned worse beneath Nana Akufo-Addo, who beat Mahama within the 2016 elections.

Ghana averaged 45.8 beneath Mahama however dropped to 42 beneath Akufo-Addo within the CPI rating the place zero equates to “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”.

Mahama tried to win his previous job again in 2020, however misplaced out to Akufo-Addo as soon as once more.

Despite these defeats, Mahama has remained within the political sphere – he’s at the moment chief of the opposition.

He additionally enjoys a busy life away from politics – he has seven youngsters and spends time together with his spouse, Lordina.

Mahama can be a prolific author. Asides from his memoir, he has written for media retailers like The New York Times, main African-American journal Ebony and Ghana’s state-owned Daily Graphic.

Mahama has additionally expressed his ardour for music, saying Nigerian Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti helped him kind “political consciousness” and that Michael Jackson is “one of the greatest artistes that ever lived”.

And in a full-circle second, the previous president was immortalised in Mahama Paper, a music by Ghanaian dancehall star Shatta Wale. Wale mentioned the title was a reference to the Ghanaian banknotes printed throughout Mahama’s administration.

Naturally, Mahama has used the hit in his present marketing campaign, declaring that beneath Akufo-Addo, Ghana has plummeted into its worst financial disaster in years.

He has additionally been reminding Ghanaians of his intensive political expertise however the truth stays – he was voted out of energy as soon as earlier than as the general public felt his efficiency wasn’t adequate.

Mahama is searching for to steer voters this time can be completely different – a communications whizz hoping his message is obvious sufficient to win him a second likelihood in Ghana’s highest workplace.

Additional reporting by Thomas Naadi in Accra