The friendship between Sam Jonah and John Mahama has become stronger, with Mahama’s younger brother, Ibrahim Mahama, playing an important role. Sir Sam Jonah (73), a Ghanaian business entrepreneur and current Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, has emerged as a front-runner for John Dramani Mahama’s running mate candidature for the 2024 presidential election.
Last month, the National Democratic Congress re-elected the former president and the majority of its parliamentary candidates for next year’s general elections.
The only significant question is who will partner with John Mahama. Regardless of whether the opposition party wins in 2024, whoever wins the post will be elected to lead the party in 2024.
Elements inside the NDC and Mr Mahama’s campaign team who spoke to Asaase News are confident that, among the various names being examined by the NDC flagbearer, Sir Sam looks to be one of the favourites.
Some purists may object since Sir Sam is not a card-carrying member of the party formed by the late John Jerry Rawlings. He had, however, evolved as Mr Mahama’s primary advisor and a significant facilitator of the NDC leader’s worldwide business network during the previous decade.
Possible choice
When approached by Asaase News, a source close to Sir Sam expressed little surprise at the report, noting that moves were made to the former CEO of now-defunct Ashanti Gold with Mr Mahama ahead of the 2012 presidential race, but Sir Sam respectfully rejected.
However, the two’s closeness has evolved, with John Mahama’s younger brother and businessman, Ibrahim Mahama, playing an important part in the relationship.
Only two weeks ago, the two (John Mahama and Sam Jonah) were seen together in South Korea, when Mr Jonah presented the NDC’s 2024 presidential candidate to his extensive network of connections.
Mr Mahama won the 2012 election with Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur as his running mate but lost the 2016 election to President Akufo-Addo on the same ticket.
Following Mr Amissah-Arthur’s death in 2018, Mr Mahama picked Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as his running partner for the 2020 elections, however, the duo was defeated by the New Patriotic Party ticket, President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Profile of Mr Jonah
Mr Samuel Esson Jonah is a Ghanaian businessman who is the Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, a Johannesburg-based equity firm. Jonah formerly served as President of AngloGold Ashanti, where he shared strategic leadership with the company’s CEO, Bobby Godsell.
Jonah attended Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana, and then went on to receive an Associateship in Mining Engineering at the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, England, and an MSc in Mine Management at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London.
In 1979, he joined Ashanti Goldfields Corporation and worked in a variety of positions, including underground operations. He became CEO of Ashanti Goldfields at the age of 36 and oversaw the company’s transition into a mining giant.
During his tenure, he led the business’s listing as the first functioning African company on the New York Stock Exchange, increasing gold output from 240,000 ounces per year to over 1.6 million ounces in 10 years.
Jonah Capital, his diversified investment firm, is the second-largest shareholder in pan-African microlender Bayport, as well as a major shareholder in Houses for Africa, a company that has undertaken middle-class housing construction projects in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Nigeria, where it also provides financing.
He joined Vodafone as a non-executive director in 2009. Jonah is the current Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast in Ghana, and he serves on the boards of Equator Exploration Ltd, Scharrig Mining, Equinox Minerals, Uramin, Moto Goldmines Ltd, and Range Resources Ltd.
He also serves or has served on a number of boards, including Transnet, Mittal Steel SA, Ashesi University, Standard Bank of South Africa, Lonmin, the Commonwealth African Investment Fund (Comafin), the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact Advisory Council, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s International Investment Advisory Council on Nigeria, President Thabo Mbeki’s International Investment Advisory Council of South Africa, and President John Kufuor’s Ghana Investors’ Affair
In addition to his directorships, Jonah serves on the Advisory Board of the London Business School. In 1996, the Camborne School of Mines and the University of Exeter (UK) granted Jonah an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree.
His alma institution, Adisadel College, has named Jonah House after his father, Thomas Jonah. Jonah became the first Ghanaian knighted in the twenty-first century in June 2003, when the Prince of Wales bestowed an honorary knighthood on him in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman, a leading Commonwealth business executive, and an international public figure. Jonah has been named one of Ghana’s wealthiest persons.
Source: Asaaseradio.com
