John Dramani Mahama has been Ghana’s president as soon as prior to – and now he’s again for every other punt on the manage task.

The 65-year-old led Ghana from 2012 to 2017 and is among the West African nation’s maximum skilled politicians. He has served in any respect ranges of place of work, as an MP, deputy minister, minister, vice-president and president.

Lengthy prior to it was a occupation, politics performed a vital position in Mahama’s formative years. When Mahama used to be simply seven, his father, a central authority minister, used to be jailed right through an army coup and after got into exile.

Private trials like this seem in Mahama’s acclaimed writing – he has been printed by means of quite a few world information shops and his memoir, My First Coup D’etat, gained honour from two African literary greats, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe.

When penning his manifesto for this 12 months’s elections, Mahama informed electorate Ghana “is headed in the wrong direction and needs to be rescued”.

However critics argue he might not be the precise guy for the task, for the reason that his management used to be clash by means of financial issues and a anecdote of corruption scandals.

Mahama’s advance started in 1958, when he used to be born within the northern the city of Damongo. Later a couple of years he moved to the capital, Accra, to are living along with his father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama.

In My First Coup d’Etat, Mahama Jr describes himself as “an observant child with an active imagination and an unbounded curiosity”.

He used to be additionally moderately privileged. The community had every other house within the the city of Bole, which on the occasion used to be no longer at the nationwide grid. Mahama’s folks had been ready to spend money on a diesel generator for his or her six-bedroom area, that means theirs used to be the one area within the the city with lighting fixtures.

Native citizens would collect outdoor the home when evening fell, captivated by means of the curious orange sparkle.

The era president attended Achimota boarding faculty, a prestigious establishment recognized for teaching heads of atmosphere like Ghana’s Jerry John Rawlings, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first top minister next it received self determination from the United Kingdom.

It used to be at Achimota, in 1966, that Mahama heard there have been a coup. Army and police body of workers had stormed Ghana’s govt structures, seizing energy from Nkrumah, who used to be away on a overseas go back and forth.

As updates trickled in, Mahama was more and more apprehensive – he had heard disagree commitment from his father. Seven-year-old Mahama feared his father have been killed as a result of his proximity to Nkrumah.

It grew to become out his father have been imprisoned – he would stay in prison for roughly a 12 months.

In 1981, next a moment army coup, Mahama’s father fled the rustic for Nigeria.

In the meantime, Mahama spent his twenties and thirties finding out – he were given a Conversation Research stage from the College of Ghana prior to finding out at Moscow’s Institute of Social Sciences.

Mahama famous that his keep in Russia, later a part of the Soviet Union, alerted him to “the imperfections of the socialist system”.

Later going back on Ghana in 1996, Mahama adopted his father’s footsteps into politics.

He used to be elected as a Member of Parliament for the Nationwide Democratic Congress (NDC) birthday celebration and from there, scaled the political ranks. He zeroed in at the NDC’s messaging, taking on roles because the parliamentary spokesperson and minister for communique.

In 13 years, Mahama labored his method as much as develop into vice-president, second-in-command underneath President John Atta Generators.

However next simply 3 years in place of work, Generators died hastily on the time of 68.

Simply hours next this tragedy, a 58-year-old Mahama used to be sworn in as president. In his pronunciation, Mahama described the time because the “saddest” in Ghana’s historical past.

Normal elections had been held after that 12 months and electorate selected to hold Mahama in place of work.

So what sort of chief is Mahama? Franklin Cudjoe, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Centre for Coverage and Training, informed the BBC the previous president used to be an “excellent communicator”.

Future political scientist Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko described Mahama as a “pragmatist”.

Mahama has the it-factor however handiest in a environment the place “politics is driven by reality and intelligent communication”, mentioned Dr Sefa-Nyarko, who lectures on African management at King’s Faculty London.

However in recent Ghana, many citizens are captivated by means of overambitious words, in keeping with Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko, because of this pragmatic Mahama is “not able to charm the populace much”.

When campaigning to stick in energy forward of the 2016 elections, Mahama highlighted numerous infrastructure tasks finished underneath his management, reminiscent of the ones within the transportation, fitness, and training sectors.

However underneath his attend to, Ghanaians additionally skilled an unwell financial system and customery energy cuts. Mahama used to be nicknamed “Mr Dumsor” in connection with the blackouts – “dum” manner off and “sor” manner on within the native Twi language.

His time period used to be additionally blighted by means of corruption scandals. As an example, a UK court docket discovered that flying immense Airbus had old bribes to hold words with Ghana for army planes between 2009 and 2015 – however Ghana’s Administrative center of the Particular Prosecutor concluded there used to be disagree proof that Mahama used to be excited about any corrupt actions himself.

There are “lingering issues” shape those graft scandals – ones that the stream voters will “remember”, Mr Cudjoe mentioned.

However he additionally issues out that, in keeping with Transparency World’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), corruption was worse underneath Nana Akufo-Addo, who beat Mahama within the 2016 elections.

Ghana averaged 45.8 underneath Mahama however dropped to 42 underneath Akufo-Addo within the CPI rating the place 0 equates to “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean”.

Mahama tried to win his vintage task again in 2020, however misplaced out to Akufo-Addo as soon as once more.

In spite of those defeats, Mahama has remained within the political sphere – he’s recently chief of the opposition.

He additionally enjoys a hectic year clear of politics – he has seven kids and spends occasion along with his spouse, Lordina.

Mahama may be a prolific scribbler. Asides from his memoir, he has written for media shops like The Brandnew York Occasions, well-known African-American copy Ebony and Ghana’s state-owned Day-to-day Detailed.

Mahama has additionally expressed his pastime for track, pronouncing Nigerian Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti helped him mode “political consciousness” and that Michael Jackson is “one of the greatest artistes that ever lived”.

And in a full-circle future, the previous president used to be immortalised in Mahama Paper, a track by means of Ghanaian dancehall superstar Shatta Wale. Wale mentioned the name used to be a connection with the Ghanaian banknotes revealed right through Mahama’s management.

Naturally, Mahama has old the clash in his stream marketing campaign, stating that underneath Akufo-Addo, Ghana has plummeted into its worst financial catastrophe in years.

He has additionally been reminding Ghanaians of his in depth political revel in however the reality rest – he used to be voted out of energy as soon as prior to because the crowd felt his efficiency wasn’t just right enough quantity.

Mahama is looking for to influence electorate this occasion will likely be other – a communications whizz hoping his message is sunny enough quantity to win him a moment probability in Ghana’s best place of work.

Backup reporting by means of Thomas Naadi in Accra