John Dramani Mahama born 29 November 1958) is the current
President of Ghana, in office since 2012. Mahama served as the
Vice President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012, and took office as President on 24 July 2012 following the death of his predecessor,
John Atta Mills.
[1] He was elected to serve his first term as President in the
December 2012 election.
[2]
A communication expert, historian, and writer, Mahama was a Member of
Parliament from 1997 to 2009 and Minister of Communications from 1998 to
2001.
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JOHN MAHAMA |
A member
of the
Gonja ethnic group, he hails from
Bole in the Northern region. Mahama was born in
Damongo in the
Damango-Daboya constituency of Northern region into a political tradition dating back to the country's
First Republic. His father,
Emmanuel Adama Mahama, a wealthy rice
farmer and teacher, was the first
Member of Parliament for the
West Gonja constituency and the first Regional Commissioner of the
Northern Region during the
First Republic under Ghana's first president,
Kwame Nkrumah. Mahama's father also served as a senior presidential advisor during Ghana's
Third Republic under
Hilla Limann.
Mahama had his early education at
Achimota School and then proceeded to Ghana Secondary School (
Tamale,
Northern region) and the
University of Ghana,
Legon,
receiving a bachelor's degree in history in 1981 and a postgraduate
diploma in communication studies in 1986. As a student, he was a member
of Commonwealth Hall (Legon). He also studied at the Institute of Social
Sciences in
Moscow in the
Soviet Union, specializing in social psychology; he obtained a postgraduate degree in 1988.
[3]
Early career
After completing his undergraduate education, Mahama taught
History at the
secondary school level for a few years.
[4] Upon his return to Ghana after studying in
Moscow, he worked as the Information, Culture and Research Officer at the Embassy of
Japan in
Accra between 1991 and 1995.
[5] From there he moved to the anti-poverty
non-governmental organisation (NGO)
Plan International's
Ghana Country Office, where he worked as International Relations,
Sponsorship Communications and Grants Manager between 1995 and 1996.
[3] In 1993, he participated in a professional training course for Overseas Public Relations Staff, organized by the Japanese
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in
Tokyo. He also participated in a management development course organized by
Plan International (RESA) in
Nairobi,
Kenya.
[6]
Political appointments
As 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, Mahama was appointed
Deputy Minister of Communications. He was promoted to the post of
Minister of Communications in November 1998, serving in that post until
January 2001, when the ruling
National Democratic Congress (NDC) handed over power to the
New Patriotic Party's government.
[7]
In 2000, 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 Parliamentary Spokesman for Communications. In 2002, he
was appointed the Director of Communications for the NDC. That same
year, he served as a member of the team of International Observers
selected to monitor
Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Elections.
[3] As an
MP,
he was a member of Standing Orders Committee as well as the Transport,
Industry, Energy, Communications, Science and Technology Committee of
Parliament.
[8]
CREDIT: WIKIPAEDIA