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Having worked closely with Ghana’s former president John Dramani Mahama, one can at- test to his commitment to democracy. The 62-year-old former Minister of Communications, writer, farmer, ICT expert and graduate of history is from a family with strong leadership pedigree. His late father was a government minister.
When the deadly Ebola virus struck West Africa between 2014 and 2016 with badly-hit Liberia isolated by the rest of the world, Mahama as Ghanaian president and Chair of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of and Government, broke that isolation by paying a crucial solidarity visit to Liberia.
Ghana under his leadership also became the regional hub for international interventions against Ebola, which killed 11,310 people from the 28,618 cases reported worldwide, mainly in West African countries of Liberia, Guinea Conakry and, Sierra Leone. Elections are triggers and drivers of conflicts including civil wars, especially in politically restive West Africa. Electoral processes are even trickier in post-conflict environments.