The name of Ghanaian business mogul and current Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Sir Sam Jonah, has come up as a front runner for John Dramani Mahama’s running mate nomination for the 2024 presidential race.
The National Democratic Congress last month elected the former president once again and most of their parliamentary candidates for next year’s general election.
The one big slot left is who partners Mr Mahama. Whoever gets the slot will be awarded poll position to lead the party in 2024, whether the opposition party wins in 2024 or not.
Elements within the NDC and the campaign team of Mr Mahama who spoke to Asaase News are convinced that among the several names being considered by the NDC flagbearer, Sir Sam appears to be one of those highly tipped to get the nod.
This may not go down well with some purists, since Sir Sam is not known as a card-bearing member of the party founded by the late John Jerry Rawlings. He had, however, grown over the last decade as Mr Mahama’s key advisor and a major facilitator of the NDC leader’s international business network.
Possible choice
A source close to Sir Sam when contacted by Asaase News expressed no surprise to the news, adding that ahead of the 2012 presidential election, moves were made to the former CEO of now defunct Ashanti Gold with Mr Mahama but Sir Sam politely declined.
But, the bond between the two have grown, with John Mahama’s younger brother and business man, Ibrahim Mahama playing a strong role in the relationship.
Just two weeks ago, the two (John Mahama and Sam Jonah) were spotted together in the East Asian state of South Korea, where Mr Jonah introduced the NDC’s 2024 presidential candidate to his rich network of contacts there.
Mr Mahama, after winning the 2012 election with Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur as his running mate, went on to lose the 2016 polls to President Akufo-Addo with a repeat of the 2012 ticket.
Following the death of Mr Amissah-Arthur, in 2018, Mr Mahama chose Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as his running mate for the 2020 polls but the pair lost to the New Patriotic Party ticket, President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.
Profile of Mr Jonah
Samuel Esson Jonah is a Ghanaian businessman, and currently the Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, an equity fund based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jonah was previously President of AngloGold Ashanti and shared the strategic leadership of the company with its CEO, Bobby Godsell.
Jonah had his high-school education at Adisadel College in Cape Coast, Ghana, then earned an Associateship in Mining Engineering at the Camborne School of Mines, Cornwall, England, and subsequently an MSc in Mine Management at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.
He joined Ashanti Goldfields Corporation in 1979, working in various capacities, including underground operations. At the age of 36, he became the Chief Executive officer, and supervised the transformation of Ashanti Goldfields into a mining multinational.
During his tenure, he increased gold production from 240,000 ounces per annum to over 1.6 million ounces in over ten years, and oversaw the company’s listing as the first operating African company on the New York Stock Exchange.
His diversified investment company, Jonah Capital, is the second-biggest shareholder in pan-African microlender Bayport, and 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 finance.
In 2009, he became a non-executive director of Vodafone. Currently, the Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, Jonah chairs 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 various boards, including Transnet, Mittal Steel SA, Ashesi University, Standard Bank of South Africa, Lonmin, the Commonwealth African Investment Fund (Comafin), the Advisory Council of the UN Secretary General’s Global Compact, 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’ Advisory Council.
As well as his directorships, Jonah is a member of the Advisory Board of the London Business School. Jonah’s honors include an honorary Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree awarded jointly by the Camborne School of Mines and the University of Exeter (UK) in 1996.
Jonah House, Adisadel College, his alma mater, has been named after his father, Thomas Jonah. In June 2003, Jonah became the first Ghanaian to be knighted in the 21st century, when he was presented with an honorary knighthood by the Prince of Wales, in recognition of his achievements as an African businessman, a leading business executive from the Commonwealth, and an international public figure. Jonah has been listed among the richest people in Ghana.