The veteran is taking a second shot at the Ghanaian presidency.

John Dramani Mahama has been Ghana’s president once before – and now he’s back in the top job.

The 65-year-old led Ghana from 2012 to 2017 and is one of the West African country’s most experienced politicians. He served at all levels of office as a Member of Parliament, Deputy Minister, Minister, Vice President and President.

Long before becoming a career, politics played an important role in Mahama’s childhood. When Mahama was only seven years old, her father, a government minister, was jailed and later exiled during a military coup.

Such personal trials are reflected in Mahama’s acclaimed writing – he has been published by several international news outlets and his memoir, My First Copywriting, has been published by two African literary giants, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Chinua Achebe. Appreciated by

While writing our manifesto for this year’s elections, Mahama told Ghanaian voters he was “going in the wrong direction and needed to be rescued”.

But critics say he may not be the right man for the job, given that his administration has been plagued by economic problems and corruption scandals.

Maha’s journey began in 1958, when he was born in the northern town of Damongo. After a few years he moved to the capital Accra to live with his father, Emmanuel Adama Maha.

In My First Coupe d’Et, Mahama Jr. describes himself as “an observant child with an active imagination and boundless curiosity.”

He was also relatively privileged. The family had another house in Bole town, which was not on the National Grid at the time. Maha’s parents were able to invest in a diesel generator for their six-bedroom house, meaning theirs was the only house in town with electricity.

Local residents would gather outside the house at nightfall, mesmerized by the strange orange glow.

The future president attended the Achimota Boarding School, a prestigious institution known for educating heads of state such as Ghana’s Jerry John Rawlings, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Kwame Nkrumah, who helped gain independence from Britain. The latter was the first Prime Minister of Ghana.

It was in Achimota in 1966, when Mahama heard that there had been a coup. Military and police officers stormed Ghana’s government buildings, and seized power from Nkrumah, who was on a foreign visit.

As the updates came in, Maha grew restless – she hadn’t heard from her father. Seven-year-old Maha feared her father had been killed for being close to Nkrumah.

It turns out that her father has been imprisoned – he will be in prison for about a year.

In 1981, after the second military coup, Mahama’s father left the country for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Mahama spent his twenties and thirties studying – he earned a degree in communication studies from the University of Ghana before studying at the Institute of Social Sciences in Moscow.

Mahama noted that his stay in Russia, then part of the Soviet Union, made him aware of the “flaws of the socialist system”.

After returning to Ghana in 1996, Mahama followed his father’s footsteps into politics.

He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party and rose through the political ranks from there. He zeroed in on the NDC’s messaging, taking on roles as Parliamentary Spokesperson and Minister of Communications.

Over 13 years, Mahama worked his way up to become Vice President, second in command under President John Atta Mills.

But after just three years in office, Mills died unexpectedly at the age of 68.

Hours after the tragedy, 58-year-old Mahama was sworn in as president. In his speech, Mahama described the day as the saddest day in Ghana’s history.

General elections were held later that year and voters chose to keep Mahama in office.

So what kind of leader is Mahama? Franklin Kidjo, a Ghanaian political commentator and head of the Imani Center for Policy and Education, told the BBC that the former president was an “excellent communicator”.

While political scientist Dr. Clement Sifa Nyarko described Maha as a “pragmatist”.

Dr Sefa Nyarko, who lectures on African leadership at King’s College London, said Mahama has that element but only in an environment where “politics is driven by reality and intelligent communication”.

But in contemporary Ghana, according to Dr Clement Sifa-Nyarko, many voters are swayed by more ambitious promises, which means the pragmatic Mahama “is not able to appeal to the masses”.

Campaigning for power ahead of the 2016 elections, Mahama highlighted various infrastructure projects completed under his administration, such as in the transport, health and education sectors.

But under his watch, Ghanaians also suffered from an ailing economy and massive power cuts. Mahama was nicknamed “Mr Dumsur” in reference to the blackout – “dum” meaning off and “pig” in the local Twi language.

His tenure was also marred by corruption scandals. For example, a UK court found that aviation giant Airbus used bribes to secure military aircraft contracts with Ghana between 2009 and 2015 – but Ghana’s special prosecutor’s office found that concluded that there was no evidence that Mahama himself was involved in any corrupt activities.

Mr Cudjoe said there were “lingering issues” surrounding the corruption scandals – which the current electorate would “remember”.

But he also points out that, according to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), corruption worsened under Nana Akufo-Addo, who defeated Mahama in the 2016 election.

Ghana averaged 45.8 under Mahama but fell to 42 under Akufo-Addo in the CPI ranking where zero equals “very corrupt” and 100 equals “very clean”.

Maha tried to win back her old job in 2020, but lost again to Akufo-Addo.

Despite these defeats, Mahama remains in the political arena – she is currently the leader of the opposition.

He also enjoys a busy life away from politics – he has seven children and spends time with his wife Lardina.

Maha is also a prolific writer. In addition to his memoirs, he has written for media outlets such as The New York Times, the leading African-American magazine Ebony, and Ghana’s official Daily Graphic.

Mahama has also expressed his passion for music, saying that Nigerian Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti helped make him “politically conscious” and that Michael Jackson is “one of the greatest artists who ever lived”.

And in a full-circle moment, the former president was immortalized in Ghanaian dancehall star Shatta Wale’s song Mahama Pepper. Vale said the title was a reference to Ghanaian banknotes printed during Mahama’s administration.

Naturally, Mahama has used the hit in his current campaign, pointing out that under Akufo-Addo, Ghana has plunged into its worst economic crisis in years.

He has also been reminding Ghanaians of his vast political experience but the truth is – he was voted out of power once before because the public felt he was not performing well enough.

Mahama is trying to convince voters this time will be different – a communications whiz who hopes his message is clear enough to win him a second chance at Ghana’s highest office.

Additional reporting by Thomas Nadi in Accra