John Mahama: Biography, Facts and Career

John Dramani Mahama ( ; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who has been the president of the Republic of Ghana since January 2025. A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he previously served as president from 2012 to 2017. Mahama served as a Member of Parliament for Bole/Bamboi from 1997 to 2009 and served as Deputy Minister for Communication between 1997 and 1998 before becoming the substantive Minister for Communications in 1998. He then served as vice president under President John Atta Mills from 2009 to 2012. Mahama took office as president when Mills died in office on 24 July 2012. Mahama is the first vice president to assume the presidency following the death of his predecessor, and is the first head of state of Ghana to have been born after Ghana's independence in 1957. He was elected in the December 2012 election to serve a full-term as president. He contested re-election for a second term in the 2016 election but lost to the New Patriotic Party candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. This made him the first president in the history of Ghana to not have won a consecutive second term. Mahama was again the NDC's presidential candidate in the 2020 election, where he lost to Akufo-Addo. He was re-elected president in the 2024 election, defeating the then incumbent vice president Mahamudu Bawumia, making him the first president in Ghanaian history to be democratically elected to a non-consecutive second term.

Quick facts about John Mahama

• Full name: John Mahama
• Born: 1958-11-29
• Nationality: Ghana
• Known as: Author
• Wikidata ID: Q50678

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.