Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has recounted how decades of political setbacks and national instability shaped his determination to change Ghana’s direction when he eventually became president at age 62.
Speaking in an interview on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, Mr. Kufuor reflected on his entry into politics in his twenties and the experiences that preceded his inauguration in January 2001.
“I went into politics in my 20s. I became president age 62,” he said.
His early political career was interrupted by the military coup of January 1972, which overthrew the government of the Second Republic. Mr. Kufuor, who was then a Member of Parliament, was arrested and spent 15 months in prison at Ussher Fort alongside other parliamentarians and ministers.
He said the years of political instability and economic difficulties that followed deepened his understanding of leadership and the challenges facing the country.
“Things really were not working,” he recalled, describing the atmosphere of fear and repression that characterised successive military regimes.
Mr. Kufuor also spoke about the “culture of silence” that prevented many Ghanaians from freely expressing their views during the period.
Although the country returned to constitutional rule under the 1992 Constitution, he said the transition did not immediately resolve the economic and structural challenges that had accumulated over the years.
When he won the 2000 presidential election and assumed office in January 2001, Mr. Kufuor said he was determined to offer Ghanaians a different experience of governance.
“I was determined to lead a government that would make our nation get the practical experience of what could be other than what the nation had become used to for a whole period of about 40 years,” he said.
Mr. Kufuor’s reflections highlight the lengthy path from his early involvement in politics to the presidency, shaped by imprisonment, political upheaval and his eventual return to democratic leadership.
