A Lawyer of considerable repute, Mr. Joe Ghartey, is offering himself to the NPP delegates for election as the party’s Presidential Candidate. He says he is better placed to lead Ghana’s transformation through an innovative education model after the UK’s to make it an economic tool.
Background:
Mr. Joe Ghartey was born on 15 June 1961, in Accra.
A Ghanaian lawyer, academic and politician, he is credited with reviving the country’s Railways sector during his tenure as sector Minister for Railways Development when appointed by President Akufo Addo on 11 January 2017. Mr Joe Ghartey hails from Shama, in the Western Region. He was born to a teacher, Lauraine Ghartey and a public servant, Joseph Ghartey.
He started his early education at Ridge Church School in Accra and later continued at Mfantsipim School, in Cape Coast. After Mfantsipim, Joe Ghartey enrolled to study law and obtained his LLB (Hons) degree in 1986 from the University of Ghana, and BL from the Ghana School of Law in 1988, he was called to the Bar of Ghana that same year. After his National Service as a Legal Officer to the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem District Assembly in the Central Region, he also took up a job as an Associate at the Chambers of Lawyer Gwira in Sekondi. Later, he joined the firm of Akufo-Addo, Prempeh and Co., which was co-founded by Nana Akufo-Addo. Mr. Ghartey left this firm after seven years and in 1994 co-founded the law firm, Ghartey and Ghartey with his wife Efua Ghartey nee Dickson.
Politics:
He’s been a member of the New Patriotic Party since 1992. He started off as a member of the Sekondi Campaign Team and later served as Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional Disciplinary Committee of the Party. He was part of the team that wrote the “Stolen Verdict”, in 1993, which was a detailed account of the widespread electoral malpractices that occurred during the 1992 general election. He chaired the Session of the National Conference which amended the constitution of the NPP at the Trade Fair Center in Accra on 22 August 2009. This was when the Electoral College for the election of the presidential candidate was expanded from a few thousand delegates to more than one hundred thousand delegates. He was also a member of the team of legal experts appointed by the National Council of the NPP to review the conduct of the election petition that was filed in the Supreme Court after the 2012 general election and to provide recommendations going forward. In 2000, he was a pillar in the NPP’s Western Regional Presidential Campaign Team, travelling the length and breadth of the region with the then candidate John Kufuor, who went on to win the general elections in December that year.
Joe Ghartey is currently the NPP Member of Parliament for Essikado / Ketan Constituency in the Western Region. He was first elected to the seat in the December 2004 elections and was re-elected in both the December 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020.
During the Administration of President John Agyekum Kufuor, Joe Ghartey was appointed Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Minister for Justice in March 2005. He was soon promoted and appointed the substantive Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in June 2006, a position he held until January 2009 following the electoral loss of the NPP in the 2008 general elections. Joe Ghartey was the longest serving Attorney-General and Minister for Justice under the Kufuor administration. Mr. Joe Ghartey whose campaign is anchored on “Hope and Unity” wants to use education as an economic tool to transform Ghana.
He said his administration will ”add value to Ghana’s other natural resources”.
Mr. Joe Ghartey hopes the NPP delegates will give him the nod to lead the party to victory in the 2024 election.