Ghana was initially known as the Gold Coast and changed to Ghana after independence in 1957.
The West African country has 13 Presidents from 1957 to 2021.
Here are a few facts or profile of those who have ruled the land of Gold:
1. Dr Kwame Nkrumah
Nkrumah was a politician and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An influential advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and winner of the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union in 1962.
He took office on July 1, 1960 and was deposed from office on February 26, 1966, by the National Liberation Council, which forced him to live the rest of his life in Guinea, of which he was named honorary co-president.
He was born on 21 September 1909 and his death was announced in April 1972. He died of prostate cancer at 62 while in Romania.
2. General Joseph Ankrah
Joseph Arthur Ankrah was a General army and served as chief of staff before taken over from Kwame Nkrumah.
He served as the second president of Ghana from 1966 to 1969.
At the age of 43, he was untimely executed together with two other former heads of state- Acheampong and Akuffo.
3. Edward Akufo-Addo
Akufo-Addo was a politician and lawyer and also one of the founding fathers of Ghana who engaged in the fight for Ghana’s independence.
Akufo-Addo was born on 26th of June 1906 at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.
Akufo-Addo was 3rd Chief Justice of Ghana between 1966 to 1970.
He became President from 1970 to 1972.
He was the father of the current Ghanaian head of state, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo.
4. Nii Amaa Ollennu
Raphael Nii Amaa Ollennu was born in Labadi, Accra in 1906 and belonged to the Ga people.
He was a jurist and judge who became a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana from 1962 to 1966, the acting President of Ghana during the Second Republic from 7 August 1970 to 31 August 1970 and the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana from 1969 to 1972.
On September 1, 1962 to 1966, he was appointed by Kwame Nkrumah as justice of the supreme court of Ghana.
Nii Amaa Ollennu died in December 1986.
5. Jerry John Rawlings
Jerry Rawlings was the 1st President of the 4th Republic
He was born 22nd of June 1947.
Rawlings was a military officer and politician. He was elected two terms as the democratically elected President of Ghana between 1993 to 2001.
He died in November 2020 at 73 and was accorded a state funeral.
6. John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor
Kufuor is a politician who served as the President from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009. He was also Chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008.
Kufor’s victory marked the first peaceful democratic transition of power in Ghana since the country’s independence in 1957.
7. John Atta Mills
He was a politician and legal scholar who served as President from 2009 until his death in 2012.
He was previously the Vice-President from 1997 to 2001 under President Jerry Rawlings and he contested unsuccessfully in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections as the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
He was the first Ghanaian President to die in office.
Mills was born on July 21, 1944 in Tarkwa, in the Western Region of Ghana.
8. John Dramani Maham
John Dramani Mahama was born November 29, 1958.
He is a politician who served as President from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017.
He has been in office since 7 January 2017.
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).
Mahama is the first vice president to take over the presidency from the death of his predecessor, John Atta Mills.
9. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is a Ghanaian politician who is the current President.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was born in Swalaba Accra, Ghana.
Akufo-Addo previously served as Attorney General from 2001 to 2003 and as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007 under the Kufuor-led administration.
He is also serving his second term as the chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
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