Born in 1944 into a family whose dominant careers were law, politics, and public service, President Akufo-Addo was destined to become either a lawyer, a public servant, a politician, or all three.
Akufo-Addo is reported to have described the events during and immediately after the famous riots of February 28, 1948, in Osu and Accra. At his political baptism, he was only 4 years old, but he remembers the tremendous movement of humans in such a ferocious manner as to show anger and resentment towards the colonial authority of the day.
Consequently, the suspected leaders of the riots were arrested, save Nii Kwabena Bonnie III, the Osu Alata Manste, five lawyers, and their general secretary, Kwame Nkrumah, who were arrested and detained. Led by J.B. Danquah, the group became known as the Big Six, whose images adorn the national currency.
That was Akufo-Addo’s political baptism; three of the Big Six were his direct relatives: Danquah was a grand uncle, Will Ofori-Atta was his direct uncle, and Edward Akufo-Addo was his father. He had sufficient acquaintance with the other 3, especially Obetsebi Lamptey, whose son Otanka (later known as Jake Obetsebi Lamptey) was also 4 years old and became Akufo-Addo’s first best friend at age 4 as they became playmates.
Akufo Addo then saw and must have been disturbed by the rancorous politics of the pre- and post-independence eras. Since he was raised in a political home as it were by Nana Addo (his father), as he was known, he must have been bombarded with daily stories depicting policy decadence, heard daily thesis against the abuse of human rights, and some of the objections to the provisions of the 1960 Constitution.
It was in those circumstances of his upbringing that the young Akufo-Addo observed the imprisonment of his uncle Danquah under the PDA and the dismissal of his father as a supreme court judge by the president for the ruling in the Tawiah Adamafio trial.
These two occurrences developed human rights activism in the young Nana Addo, and it began to form an essential part of his political philosophy.
Next was the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime and the restoration of parliamentary democracy. By this time Nana Addo is in university and has a more grounded philosophy, having met many young ideologues at the Legon campus, some of them being Prof. Modibo Ocran (later nominated by Akufo-Addo for the role of supreme court justice during the Kuffour era), Prof. Fiadzo, Tsastu Tsikata, Akilakpa Sawyer, and the left wingers of the day. The first ideological strand that seems to have taken firm roots was the human rights foundation.
But Nana Addo must have observed with great disappointment the furious and unhealthy attitudes manifested by the likes of Joe Appiah, who were determined to divide the UP tradition for their own parochial interests.
Try as they did, they could not convince Appiah, a staunch member of the tradition, to accept Busia as the leader. Appiah felt that he could lead too, and in the end, all the elders, including Da Rocha and most likely Akufo-Addo’s father, gave up. Appiah left and formed his own party; Busia won a landslide; Appiah was vanquished and became a pariah to the UP. Nana Addo must have felt terrible about that, and that incident began to mushroom into the strand of his philosophy, i.e., unity of the group, unity of purpose, and a broad-based approach to leadership.
Akufo-Addo’s next level of interaction with politics was to manifest the two strands of his now-emerging political philosophy: human rights and a broad-based political movement, but in keeping with tradition.
This was the event in the mid- to late-70’s. It was the protest by professional bodies against the human rights violations of the Acheampong era and the attempt to torpedo democracy by introducing the UNIGOV matter.
Nana Ado was delivered to work alongside former Nkrumahists from the CPP and the NAL group, together with people from his own tradition. He enjoyed working with Obed Asamoah, Sam Okudzeto, Dr. Agama, Afro Gbedemah, Da Rocha, Victor Owusu, Peter Adjetey, Adu Boahen, and, of course, one of his longtime mentors, Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa, who actually got Nana Addo excited about this action for democracy.
Nana Addo tells the story of how, after court in Kumasi one day, he received a call to trek to Krobo in Mampong Ashanti to see Gen. Afrifa.
As history will have it, on that day, Akufo-Addo was in the company of another Akufo, the young and dashing lawyer named Sophia. Of course, in later life, Akufo-Addo will become president and appoint Sophia as Chief Justice. What can we say about the twists and turns of history?
Then came the creation of the PMMJ, which is what the Afrifa movement was called. Nana Addo became the joint general secretary of the group.
The protest appeared to have been successful, and democracy was restored.
Then came the bitter pill for Akufo Addo; his uncle and his mentor were both fighting for the leadership of the party his uncle helped found.
He was devastated and couldn’t even make a decision on how to vote; he felt the pain of divisions in politics.
So by the end of the 1979 elections, Akufo-Addo’s political philosophy had been well formed; it was twofold: an avowed pro-human rights philosophy and a stickler for party unity, plus a broad-based outlook for party leadership.
At the beginning of the 1980s, Nana Addo supported the unity talks between the PFP and the UNC. These tales gave birth to a new party called the APP. All Peoples Party. The APP was to be led by Victor Owusu and to have Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu as its running mate, and so on and so forth.
The APP was poised to win the 1983 elections, but alas, the elections were not to be. J.J. Rawlings and Kojo Tsikata showed up, and the rest is history.
In the early 1980s, Akufo-Addo left the UV Cambell law firm to set up his own. Together with his friend Dr. Prempeh (who is currently a chief in Asanteman), they formed Akufo Addo, Prempeh, and Co.
One of the distinguishing features of this law firm was that they represented clients for free on all human rights issues. It was a big sacrifice to make, and junior lawyers were not particularly excited by having to go to court for free, but this was the master’s philosophy, and as Providence will have it, most of the lawyers from this law firm became some of the best and brightest ever seen from the Ghana Bar. The firm has produced as many as four Attorney Generals: the boss himself, Joe Ghartey, Gloria Akuffo, and the current AG, Godfred Dame.
The 1980s were quiet for politics in Ghana. During the period, Akufo-Addo will spend his time in both England and Ghana.
At the grand funeral ceremony organised by the Bar Association for his father in 1980, the bar president, Mr. William Adumoah Bossman, as he then was, paid glowing tribute to the late CJ but emphasised that if what had been seen of his son was anything to go by, then the bar must be ready for a blistering legal career that should hopefully surpass that of the great Edward. To this, there was loud applause. Mr. Bossman had prophesied right, and the rest, as they say, is history.
By 1991, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen had used university lectures to arouse the desire in Ghana for a return to constitutional rule and a return to the regime of human rights.
Upon such pressure, the PNDC agreed to allow party politics to occur in 1992 with a new constitution.
The UP tradition had to form again, and this time unity was key. Once unity was key and the choice was to be broadened, Akufo-Addo was in. This was his philosophy: let’s unite and broaden our base by making leadership accessible to all.
So he supported Adu Boahen.
Then came the loss of the election and the boycott of Parliament, which left the opposition with just the courts and street protests, as well as the media, to express their objection to JJ and the NDC.
At this time, Akufo-Addo introduced another strand of his philosophy: the clarion call for independent media and the repeal of the criminal libel laws.
He set up a newspaper and named it “The Statesman, the same name as JB Danquah’s paper in the 1940s.
So there emerged a third strand in the philosophy of Akufo-Addo: human rights, broad-based politics, and independent media.
The years of opposition from 1993 to 1996 were very eventful. A new group called the Alliance for Change emerged. It became a very formidable group of young people who staged what is yet to be the biggest demonstration ever.
The success of the group and the calibre of their leaders made them a clear choice for political mobilisation and party politics.
This situation came with huge temptations; the NPP seemed to be struggling with youth mobilisations but was better than the CPP. It was felt that the AFC could usurp the political space of both parties to create a movement to supplant both traditions and win power for the moment.
This thought was very tempting, and it became even more pronounced when the AFC’s choice of Kwame Pianim as the NPP’s candidate was undermined by the Supreme Court ruling disqualifying Mr. Pianim from running for president.
Elements in the AFC who really wanted the breakaway to form a new party included Charles Wereko Brobbey, Kojo Poku, Kakraba Cromwell, Kwesi Pratt Jr., and, to some extent, Anthony Akoto Ampaw.
But the most popular figure among the leadership of the AFC was the human rights lawyer, Nana Akufo-Addo, who was also the group’s spokesperson (as appointed by Nyaho Tamakloe), and his support was needed for this breakaway effort.
The NPP contest had proceeded without Kwame Pianim, and it elected John Kuffour for the first time to lead the NPP.
The groundswell of talk about the breakaway occasioned an alliance between the CPP, then known as the PCP, and the NPP. Nana Addo was very much against the breakaway of the alliance; he stood for the unity of the NPP.
So the 1996 election was fought, Kuffour lost, and JJ was elected.
There were other elements in the AFC leadership, like Kweku Baako, who felt the same as Akufo Addo, that the alliance should not supplant the regular parties. It is said that Mr. Baako had real admiration for Prof. Adu Boahen and seemed to have transferred the same to Kuffour after Kuffour became the candidate.
Akufo Addo was given pressure by the youth to challenge Kuffuor for the NPP mandate for the 2000 election in 1998.
This writer is one of the young people who organised a bus from the University of Ghana to attend the Congress in Sunyani and offer Nana Addo high morale. So were many other youths from different walks of life.
We all (the youth) met with the candidate, Nana Addo, and he addressed us in the company of Gen. Nunoo Mensah, who was his campaign manager at the time.
The candidate told us that whatever happens, he is grateful for our support. He told us that win or lose, we should support the winner to defeat the NDC in 2000 because, as he put it, “Ghana may collapse under a government of ineptitude if the NDC wins again.”
Kuffour won the contest, and Akufo-Addo conceded defeat.
In the weeks that followed, many were those who encouraged Akufo-Addo to explore his tremendous popularity with the youth, create his own political movement, and run against the NPP for the 2000 election.
One other leader of the AFC, Charles Wereko Brobbey, who was much less popular and less fancied by the youth, however, succumbed to the temptation to form a new party; he left the NPP and founded the United Ghana Movement (UGM). This writer was at the launch of the UGM in Nsawam in March 2000 as a reporter for JOY FM.
At that event, Charles Brobbey had an impressive message for the youth, but it was obvious that the loyalty of the youth of that day lay elsewhere, with Nana Akufo Addo, the avowed human rights lawyer and unifier.
Kuffour’s campaign for the 2000 election took off without much ceremony. It began in the nook and cranny of the hinterland. Sometime during the campaign, Nana Addo and his army of youth joined the Kuffour campaign to bring it the much-needed boost and impetus required to create a sensation for victory.
Victory was achieved, and Kuffour became president. Akufo-Addo became Attorney General and later Foreign Affairs Minister.
In December 2007, Akufo-Addo was elected the party’s flagbearer. His first choice of running mate was Hajia Alima Mahama. He felt it was time to spread the word and include gender parity. Somehow, members of his party felt it was not time for gender. The choice of running mate being exclusively his, Akufo Addo could have proceeded and insisted, but holding the philosophy of unity and reconciliation, he agreed to change the candidate and now named the very youthful banker, whose father was the founder of the Northern Peoples Party, which became the party with the highest number of seats within the UP alliance that was led by Busia.
The older Bawumia had continued in politics with the PNDC and NDC and had risen to become chairman of JJ’s council of state.
The announcement of the new choice of running mate received some queries; however, Nana Addo campaigned among important party people to secure their support and backing for his choice.
The election of 2008 was lost. And in 2012, Nana Addo repeated Bawumia.
By the end of the 2013 election petition, Bawumia had won the hearts of most NPP youth. He had come of political age, and he was now a real asset to the party. Akufo-Addo’s philosophy was beginning to take root in the NPP.
The NPP gained significant attraction in the Mahama years from 2013 to 2016.
So many high-profile young corporate leaders began to associate with the NPP.
Important members of corporate Ghana and high-profile journalists such as George Andah and Kojo Oppong Nkrumah joined the NPP and became parliamentary candidates. Young musicians and comedians all rallied behind the NPP under Akufo-Addo’s philosophy.
By the year 2016, the NPP was fully Akufo Addo’s party, and it was at its attractive best.
Not even a major upheaval of the boardroom crisis that led to the removal of the chairman and general secretary could undermine the resolve of this youthful army of Akufo-Addo faithfuls. They proceeded to win a record-breaking landslide victory against John Mahama.
As soon as power came, Akufo-Addo began to pursue Unity; he remembered his opponents from 2007 and proceeded to name Alan Kyrematen as trade minister long before any minister was officially named. The Alan caucus was happy and liked the respect that Akufo-Addo had shown them.
That was about making sure the ship remained united.
From the first term, Dr. Bawumia had shown that he would be a great Veep. Full of innovation and thoughtful leadership, he managed to win the hearts of most of the youth.
Nana Addo was elected for a second term, while the NPP took a hit in parliament.
Worsening global economic conditions have forced the government into an IMF programme, and all that has made the election of 2024 a difficult one for the NPP.
So in choosing the new flagbearer, the party’s youthful army is guided by the strands of Akufo-Addo’s philosophy, which, among other things, is the broad-based philosophy of the party.
If that were to be achieved, then Akufo-Addo’s philosophy would have been secured 100 percent.
For the NPP youth, this is their fight; they are desperate to show a new direction of party leadership for the NPP.
This is what is giving Bawumia the lead: the oomph and enthusiasm around his campaign, and the political astuteness of his wife, Hajia Samira, also make Bawumia’s candidature tremendous and attractive.
The real big fight will begin next week when Bawumia will be settled in lane 1 to run against former President John Mahama in lane 2.
Until then, let’s watch the political space.
Source: Paul Adom-Otchere
