The two leading political parties in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have completed their reorganisation with both parties electing their polling station, constituency, regional and national executives.
Now the attention of the whole country is turning towards the presidential and parliamentary primaries of the two parties to elect their parliamentary candidates and most importantly their presidential candidate for the 2024 election.
In the NPP, for instance, names such as the Vice President of Ghana, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia; the Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen; former Railways Minister, Joe Ghartey; the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto and the former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyapong, have come up as potential flagbearers.
The NDC also has the likes of former President John Dramani Mahama; former Minister for Finance, Kwabena Duffuor and the former Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Kojo Bonsu, expressing their interest to contest for the flagbearership position of the party.
But one important factor that is mostly ignored in the elections of presidential candidates is who their ‘chief advisors’, the wives who have journeyed with them throughout their political careers and have become their true confidants, are.
GhanaWeb in this article takes a look at some of the wives of likely flagbearer candidates for the presidential primaries of the NDC and the NPP out of which Ghana’s first lady will emerge.
Lordina Mahama:
Nearly like the first possible First Lady on this list, Lordina Mahama, who is married to Ghana’s former president, John Dramani Mahama, who is largely regarded as the presumptive flagbearer of the NDC.
She, like her husband, quickly rose to the highest office of the land after the sudden death of the late John Evans Atta Mills in 2012.
Lordina Mahama left office on January 7, 2017, but with her husband looking to return as president, she could just return to the high office she once occupied.
She attended the Anglican elementary school and then proceeded to the Ghana Secondary School in Tamale, where she met her husband John Dramani Mahama.
She has a degree in Hospitality Management and a Masters in Governance and Leadership from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.
She also acquired a Master of Laws (LLM) in Business Law/International Business Law from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom in 2019.
Samira Bawumia
Samira Bawumia, the wife of Ghana’s current Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is one to look out for as a potential first lady with her husband being touted as one of the leading candidates for NPP’s flagbearership position.
Samira started her early education at the Answarudeen Islamic School at Fadama in Accra, before continuing to the Akosombo International School (AIS) and then to Mfantsiman Girls’ Secondary School at Saltpond in the Central Region.
At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), she studied BA in Social Science in Law and Technology. At the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Relations (GIMPA), she was adjudged the Best Student in Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Mrs. Bawumia is the Ambassador for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and joins former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Academy Award-winning actor Julia Roberts, and Grammy-nominated musician Rocky Dawuni to work with the Alliance and its partners to raise awareness of household air pollution and encourage broader adoption of clean cooking solutions in developing countries in a bid to create cleaner environments and eradicate deaths caused by pollution from the burning of solid fuels for cooking.
Patricia Christabel Kyerematen
In the NPP, one of the names that are widely rumoured to vie for the position of flagbearer of the party, and eventually run as president, is Alan Kyerematen, who is the current Minister of Trade and Industry.
He is married to Patricia Christabel Kyerematen, whom very little is known about.
She was born Patricia Christabel Kingsley-Nyinah, as the daughter of Justice Joseph Kingsley-Nyinah, Ghana’s Electoral Commissioner during the 1979 presidential election.
They have two children – Alexander and Victor.
Nana Akosua Fosuah
A man who has, in the last few months, been touring the country and putting his face out there for the NDC is a former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor.
It would seem that just as nearly private as Dr. Duffuor is, his wife appears the same.
If her husband becomes president, Nana Akosua Fosuah would be Ghana’s First Lady from January 7, 2025.
Together with her husband, they have five children.
Efua Ghartey:
Joe Ghartey, a former attorney general and minister of justice and railways development minister is one of the leading members of the NPP who has stated his intention of running for the party’s presidential primaries.
Joe Ghartey is married to Efua Ghartey with whom he has 5 children.
Mrs Ghartey, like her husband, is a lawyer by profession and the two are the co-founder of the law firm, Ghartey & Ghartey.
She is the Chairperson of the Bible Society of Ghana and the Chairperson of the International Board of the United Bible Societies (UBS), which operates in more than 200 countries.
She is additionally the president of the Greater Accra Ghana Bar Association as well as a member of the Constitutional and Legal Committee of the New Patriotic Party.
Dr. Lawrencia Agyapong
The former General Secretary of the NPP, Kwabena Agyapong, who all other factors being equal will contest in the NPP presidential primaries, is married to Dr Lawrencia Agyapong.
The two have three fully grown children.
Dr Lawrencia Agyapong is an academic and is currently the Head of the Communications Department, as well as the research coordinator at the School of Graduate Studies at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto’s wife:
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, a potential flagbearer for the ruling NPP, is married with seven children but little is now about her children.
Kojo Bonsu’s wife:
Very little is known about the wife of former Kumasi Mayor, Kojo Bonsu, who will be contesting in the NDC presidential primaries.
In 2016 he admitted that his marriage of 30 years was on the rocks and stated that he had a girlfriend.
Ghanaweb—
