Ex-Education Ministers appointed running mates for 2024 election

In a rare situation, flagbearers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have separately appointed former Ministers of Education as their running mate for the 2024 general election.

As the flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama has picked Prof. Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the New Patriotic Party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has also named Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh as his running mate.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang, who partnered with former President John Dramani Mahama in the 2020 election was picked over others including Julius Debrah, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, Member of Parliament for Asunafo and Eric Opoku.

On the part of Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh also known as NAPO, he was appointed as the running mate by the Vice-president and flagbearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) over Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum.

Profile of Jane Naana

She is a full professor of literature. She served as the first female Vice-Chancellor of a state university in Ghana when she took over as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast. She currently serves as the Chancellor of the Women’s University in Africa.

Opoku-Agyemang taught and worked at the University of Cape Coast in 1986. She has held various academic positions including Head of the Department of English, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Warden of Adehye Hall, Valco Trust Fund Post-Graduate Hostel, and the Founding Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research.

Since 1997, she has held the position of Academic Director of the School for International Training in the History and Cultures of the African Diaspora. From 2008 to 2012 she was the university’s Vice Chancellor. She assumed duty on 1 October 2008, succeeding Emmanuel Addow-Obeng.

In March 2007, she was one of five scholars selected to deliver presentations during the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

She has served on many local and international boards and committees such as the Centre for Democratic Governance, (CDD-Ghana), the editorial board of the Harriet Tubman Series on the African Diaspora (Africa World Press Inc. USA), the Africa Initiative in Canada, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons as an Eminent Citizen.

Opoku-Agyemang is an author. Her focus areas include Literature with a focus on Women from Ghana, Oral literature in Ghana and Africa, and Communication Skills and Issues in the African Diaspora.

She has written and published in scholarly journals and presented articles at various conferences including the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City and the Inaugural Lecture to the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2015, as the Minister in Charge of Education, Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang published and launched a five-volume collection of published folktales titled ‘Who Told the Most Incredible Story?”

Profile of Mathew Opoku Prempeh

Matthew Opoku Prempeh, born 23 May 1968 is the current Minister of Energy and represents Manhyia South constituency in Kumasi.

He started his basic education at KNUST Primary and continued to Prempeh College in Kumasi, Ashanti Region of Ghana, for his middle school education.

He studied Human Biology and Medicine at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and completed his MB CHB in 1994.

He continued with post-graduate studies in MSc. Clinical Epidemiology at the Netherlands Institute of Health Sciences in 1998 and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he studied Leadership and Government(certificate course). In 2002, he pursued postgraduate training in surgery in the UK (MRCS).

Prior to parliament, he served as CEO of Keyedmap Security Services Limited from 2004 to 2009 and as a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2003. He is also a medical doctor/ health work.

He was appointed by President Nana Akufo-Addo on 10 January 2017 to serve as Minister for Education in Ghana. He served in that role for 4 years until 6 January 2021 when the tenure of the president and his ministers ended.