John Dramani Mahama (born November 29, 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who is the president-elect of Ghana. He previously served as President of Ghana from July 24, 2012 to January 7, 2017 and Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012. He took office as president on July 24, 2012, following the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills.
A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mahama was Member of Parliament for Bole Bamboi from 1997 to 2009 and served as Deputy Minister for Communication between 1997 and 1998 before becoming the substantive Minister for Communications in 1998. Mahama is the first vice president to take over the presidency from the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills, and is the first head of state of Ghana to have been born after Ghana’s independence. He was elected after the December 2012 election to serve as full-time President
EARLY YEARS
A member of the Gonja ethnic group in the Savanna Region of Ghana, Mahama hails from Bole in the Savanna Region. Mahama was born on Saturday, November 29, 1958 in Damongo, an area in present-day West Gonja District. 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 who was overthrown in 1981 by Jerry Rawlings.
Mahama had his primary education at the Accra Newtown Experimental School (ANT1) before going to boarding school at Achimota Primary School. He completed secondary school at Ghana Secondary School in Tamale. He proceeded to 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.
EARLY CAREER
After completing his undergraduate education, Mahama taught history at the secondary school level for a few years. 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. 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.
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.
POLITICAL CAREER
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 government.
Minister and Vice-President: Mahama served as the Deputy Minister of Communications between April 1997 and November 1998. During his tenure as Minister for Communications, Mahama also served as the Chairman of the National Communications Authority, in which capacity he played a key role in stabilising Ghana’s telecommunications sector after it was deregulated 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 the re-introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT).
President: In line with Ghana’s constitution, Mahama became President of Ghana on July 24, 2012 on the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills. In July 2012, he became Ghana’s first president to have served at all levels of political office (Ghanaian and Pan-African MP, Deputy Minister, Minister, vice-president and President).
2024 Presidential Aspiration: On May 14, 2023, John Mahama won and was confirmed during the NDC presidential primary as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2024 General elections. He polled 297,603 votes representing 98.9% and his closest contender, former Kumasi Mayor Kojo Bonsu, polled 3,181 representing 1.1%. A third contestant, Kwabena Duffuor, a former Finance minister, pulled out of the race on the eve of the elections on May 12, 2023, making it a two-horse race between Mahama and Bonsu.
On December 8, 2024, the candidate of the New Patriotic Party and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia called John Mahama to concede defeat in the 2024 General Elections.
Honours and Awards: Mahama received an honorary doctorate in the field of Public Administration, from the Ekiti State University of Nigeria, formerly affiliated to the Obafemi Awolowo University in “recognition of his politico-socio economic development of Ghana and Africa at various stages of his political career.” Later the same university passed a resolution to name its Faculty of Management Science after him.
Mahama at Chatham House
The Cuban government, recognising Mahama’s relentless advocacy for the Cuban cause, namely for the lifting of the 50-year economic embargo on the communist country and for the freedom of the detained Cuban five by the United States government, conferred on him the Friendship Medal. The General Council of Assemblies of God, Ghana honoured Mahama with its Daniel Award.
The Graduate School of Governance and Leadership also awarded him the African Servant Leadership Award while the Institute of Public Relations recognized Mahama with a prize for his leadership acumen and technocratic flair. In 2013, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) conferred on Mahama the Africa Award for Excellence in Food Security and Poverty Reduction. In March 2016, the University of Aberdeen held a special convocation to confer an honorary degree of Doctors of Laws (LLD) on Mahama.
