Background
Edward Akufo-Addo was born on June 1906 at Akwapim, the centre of early education in Ghana
Edward Akufo-Addo was born on June 1906 at Akwapim, the centre of early education in Ghana
Educated at Presbyterian schools and the Theological Seminary at Akropong, before going to Achimota School, getting an intermediate BA in 1932 and winning a scholarship to St Peter’s Hall, Oxford, where he studied mathematics, politics and philosophy. He then read law at the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in 1940.
He returned home to establish a flourishing private practice and was one of the founders of the United Gold Coast Convention. He was briefly a member of the Legislative Council in 1949-50 and one of the six UGCC members arrested and detained follow¬ing disturbances in Accra.
He was appointed a Supreme Court judge in 1962 by Kwame Nkrumah but was dismissed from office with three other judges in March 1964, for acquitting Ako Adjei, Tawia Adamafio and others accused of making an attempt on Nkrumah’s life at Kulungugu. Nkrumah had earlier amended the constitution giving himself power, as President, to dismiss judges.
On September 26, 1966, after Nkrumah's fall, he was invited to become Chief Justice, when the government reorganised the judiciary to tackle corruption. He was also chairman of the Political Committee of the National Liberation Council, of the Ghana Commercial Bank and of the Constitutional Commission that was to prepare the
important document which returned Ghana to civilian rule. It was a complex constitution, full of checks and balances, concerned primarily with preventing a return to Nkrumahism. Under this constitution, Ghana had free and fair elections which returned the government of Dr Busia in August 1969. Then, after a year of supervision by the three-man military Presidential Com-mission, the election for the Presidency was held on August 31, 1970.
Akufo-Addo stood and was returned by 123 votes to 35 for Dr Isaac Asafu Adjayc. Election was by an electoral college formed of the National Assembly and 24 chiefs. The Presidency gave him precedence in Ghana and status, but little real political power except in making minor appointments. The President was advised by a Council of State and carried a £23,000 salary.
He remained as President until the coup of January 13, 1972, when he was removed from office. He was not detained and has been living in retirement since then.
Full of urbane authority with a certain presence that is the hallmark of a distinguished career. Fond of cigars and 156 the better things in life, he was an early leader among the educated Ghanaian elite and a close colleague of Dr Danquah, who was a relative of his wife’s.