Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin
President-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, after being sworn in as the President of the Republic of Ghana this weekend, will on Sunday be hosted by the Okyeman Traditional Council at Kyebi, his hometown.
The move, initiated by the Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, is to thank the Almighty God for honouring Nana Akufo-Addo, an Akyem-Abuakwa royal, with the victory crown in the December 7 presidential poll.
The first expected public durbar to be attended by Nana Akufo-Addo as president will take place at the forecourt of the Ofori Panin Fie at Kyebi, in the East Akim municipality of the Eastern Region, where the paramount chiefs of the Okyeman Traditional Council, natives in the Diaspora, the bigwigs of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and party supporters will welcome the new president.
Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori, who made these known during the last ‘Akwasidae’ celebration to all his sub-chiefs, asked them to join the proposed ceremony in a grand style to render thanksgiving to God and offer prayers for Nana Akufo-Addo to serve the nation better in the next four years.
The Electoral Commission (EC), on 9th December, 2016, declared the New Patriotic Party presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the winner of the 2016 election after a third attempt at the slot, beating incumbent President John Mahama with 53.85 percent of the valid votes cast as against Mahama’s 44.40 percent.
Background Of Presidential Bid
In October 1998, Nana Akufo-Addo competed for the presidential candidacy of the NPP and lost to John Agyekum Kufuor, the man who eventually won the presidential election in December 2000 on the ticket of the NPP and assumed office as president on January 7, 2001.
Akufo-Addo campaiged for candidate Kufuor in the 2000 and became the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice under Kufuor’s administration. He later became the Foreign Affairs Minister.
Nana Addo contested for the position of presidential candidate of his party – the NPP – the then ruling party of Ghana, for the 2008 election.
Competing against 16 others, he won 48% of the votes in the first round of the party’s primary, but was given a unanimous endorsement in the second round, making him the presidential candidate. In the 7 December 2008 presidential race, he received in the first round, more votes than John Atta Mills, but the latter became the eventual winner.
In the first round, Akufo-Addo garnered 4,159,439 votes, representing 49.13%, placing him first, but not the constitutional 50% plus 1 needed for an outright victory. In the run-off, Mills received 4,521,032 votes, representing 50.23%.
Akufo-Addo again contested in the 2012 national elections against the then NDC candidate, John Mahama, and lost. That election generated considerable controversy, and was finally decided by the Supreme Court in a narrow 5/4 decision in favour of John Mahama.
In March 2014, Akufo-Addo announced his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the third time ahead of the 2016 elections. He secured 94.35% of the votes in the party’s presidential primary in October, 2014, in a contest of 7 competitors.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Kyebi
danielbampoe79@gmail.com