CV of Kufuor, New Patriotic Party presidential candidate
Mr John Agyekum Kufour, presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), was born on December 8, 1938, at Damang in the Ashanti Region. He entered the Lincoln Inn, London, where he obtained a degree in Law in 1959 and Oxford University in the United Kingdom from 1961 to 1964.
Mr Kufour started his working carreer as a Kumasi-based Private Legal practitioner from 1965 to 1969. He was City Manager and chief legal officer of the Kumasi City Council from 1967 to 1969. He was a member of the Constituent Assembly that wrote the 1969 Second Republican Constitution and the Progress Party’s MP for Atwima Nwabiagya constituency. He was appointed deputy minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the late Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia who governed from 1969-72.
Mr Kufour also served on a number of Boards, including the chairman of the Board of Directors of Ashanti Brick and Construction Company, as well as Cojak Company Limited between 1973 and 1978. He was again a member of the Constituent Assembly that wrote the 1979 Third Republican Constitution and entered parliament for the Atwima Nwabiagya constituency on the ticket of the Popular Front Party (PFP), a successor to the Progress Party.
He was the deputy leader and spokesman for the PFP on Foreign Affairs. In 1982 he was appointed the PNDC secretary for Local Government. Mr Kufour was the chairman of Asante Kotoko Football Club from 1988 to 1991.
In 1992 he contested the NPP’s presidential slot, which he lost to Professor Albert Adu Boahen. He again contested the party’s presidential slot in 1996, which he won and led the Great Alliance, which comprised the People’s Convention Party (PCP) and NPP. He lost to President Rawlings. Mr Kufour has again been chosen by the NPP as the presidential candidate to contest the December election. He is married to Theresa, a nurse/midwife, who was born on October 25, 1935.
