Today Is Kufour’s 84th Birthday; Check Out This Brief Biography Of Kufour

One of Ghana’s surviving former presidents, John Agyekum Kufour celebrates his birthday today. He is a very great personality and as we celebrate him today, let us take some time to get to know him.

John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor (born 8 December 1938) is a Ghanaian politician who served as the President of Ghana from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009. He was also Chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008.

Kufuor’s career has been spent on the liberal-democratic side of Ghanaian politics, in the parties descended from the United Gold Coast Convention and the United Party. A lawyer and businessman, he was a minister in Kofi Abrefa Busia’s Progress Party government during Ghana’s Second Republic and a Popular Front Party opposition frontbencher during the Third Republic. In the Fourth Republic, Kufuor stood as the New Patriotic Party’s candidate at the 1996 election, and then led it to victory in 2000 and 2004. Having served two terms in power, he retired from politics in 2008. He is popularly known as the Gentle Giant.

Early life and education

John Kufuor was born in Daaban a suburb of Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana and started his primary and elementary school at the Kumasi Government School located in Asem built by Sir Gordon Guggisberg.[2]

In 1951, he continued his primary education at Osei Tutu Boarding school (Osei Tutu Senior High School) from 1951 to 1953. At Prempeh College from 1954 to 1958, he schooled from Form 1 to Form 5.[2]

Arriving in London on 30 April 1959, he was by June accepted into Lincoln’s Inn, London (1959–61) to study law, becoming qualified as a barrister in one year and eight months. He was called to the London bar in 1961. In the following year, he was called to the bar in Ghana before going on to Oxford University and graduating from Exeter College, in 1964.

He was initially employed at the Ghana Commercial Bank in London as a Manager and Legal Officer. He returned to Ghana in the year 1965 at the behest of his mother who (having already bought a first-class ticket for his return wished him to practice in Africa. He practiced in the Chambers of Victor Owusu with another lawyer Owusu Yaw.

In 1966 he became the town clerk of Kumasi City Council [now Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly]. In the Second Republic’s Parliamentary register, Kufuor lists his hobbies and interests as table tennis, reading, football, and film shows. He was once the Chairman of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club.

Political Career

Kufuor served as the Member of Parliament for Atwima Nwabiagya in the Second (1969–72) and Third (1979–81) Republics. He is a founding member of the Progress Party which was established in Kofi Abrefa Busia’s house.

As Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, he represented Ghana on a number of occasions. From 1969 to December 1971 he led Ghana’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Ministerial Meetings in Addis Ababa, and the Summit Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement in Lusaka. In 1970 he led the Ghanaian delegation to Moscow in the Soviet Union, Prague (Czechoslovakia), and Belgrade (Yugoslavia) to discuss Ghana’s indebtedness to these countries.

As the Spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Deputy Opposition Leader of the Popular Front Party (PFP) Parliamentary Group during the Third Republic, he was invited to accompany President Hilla Limann to the OAU Summit Conference in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He was also a member of the parliamentary delegation that visited the United States in 1981 to talk to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank about Ghana’s economic problems.

In January 1982 the leadership of the All People’s Party (APP), which was an alliance of all the opposition parties, advised some leading members, including the Deputy Leader of the Alliance, Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama, the general secretary, Dr. Obed Asamoah, and Kufuor, to accept an invitation from the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) to serve in what was purported to be a National Government. Kufuor was appointed the Secretary for Local Government in this new government.

As a Secretary for Local Government, he wrote the Local Government Policy Guidelines that were to be the foundation of the current decentralized District Assemblies.

On 20 April 1996 Kufuor was nominated by 1034 out of 2000 delegates of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) drawn from all the 200 Constituencies of the Country to run for the President of Ghana on 10 December 1996. After campaigning for less than nine months, Kufuor polled 39.62% of the popular votes to Rawlings’ 57% in the 1996 election. On 23 October 1998, he was re-nominated by the New Patriotic Party not only to run again for president but also to officially assume the position of Leader of the Party.

Kufuor won the presidential election of December 2000; in the first round, held on 7 December, Kufuor came in first place with 48.4%, while John Atta-Mills, Jerry Rawlings’ Vice-president, came in second with 44.8%, forcing the two into a run-off vote. In the second round, held on 28 December, Kufuor was victorious, taking 56.9% of the vote. When Kufuor was sworn in on 7 January 2001, it marked the first time in Ghana’s history that an incumbent government had a peaceful transition of power to the opposition.

Kufuor was re-elected in presidential and parliamentary elections held on 7 December 2004, earning 52.45% of the popular vote in the first round and thus avoiding a run-off, while at the same time Kufuor’s party, the New Patriotic Party, was able to secure more seats in the Parliament of Ghana.

Source: Wikipedia