Akua Donkor was a Ghanaian politician, founder and leader of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP).

Donkor was born in February 1941 and hailed from Afigya Kwabre District in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. She is a cocoa farmer by profession. She is not known to have had any formal education.

Madam Donkor was elected assemblywoman for Herman, a step towards achieving her ambition of being the president of Ghana. Her ambition to be president is evident in the 2012 polls where she applied to contest as an independent candidate.

However, she was barred by the electoral commission. Madam Donkor on the other hand disagreed with the decision. In her view, she should be addressed as Her Excellency though she was disqualified. Her party, Ghana Freedom Party has its headquarters situated in Kabu in the Eastern Region of Ghana. However, this was gutted by fire on the 22nd of January 2016.

This did not deter her ambition to become president. In her view, the start of a political party is a stepping stone to becoming a president.

When elected as president, Madam Donkor promised to make education free from primary to secondary level. She also sought to reduce import taxes to encourage more imports. Additionally, she planned to establish a free zone at the Port of Tema to attract more businesses.

This can all be achieved through the use of Ghana's resources such as Gold, cocoa, shea butter and salt. Buying of the finished product of oil is just absurd especially when Ghana is an oil-producing country and exports its oil in an unfinished form. Muammar Gaddafi, being her political icon, was of the view that Ghana should be able to rub shoulders with Libya in the production and sale of oil.

On October 10, 2016, the Ghana Electoral Commission announced it had disqualified Akua Donkor together with 12 other presidential candidates from contesting in the December 7, 2016 election.

She admitted that her nomination form was fraught with errors as pointed out by the EC. She called on members and executives of the party not to lose hope as the party bounced back in 2020 to contest in the presidential race.

Akua Donkor was also successful in her attempt to be on the ballot sheet in the 2024 election, picking Number 3 on the ballot.

She had also named Kwabena Agyeman Appiah Kubi, better known as Roman Fada, a Ghanaian radio host, as her 2024 running mate.

She died at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital on Monday, October 28, 2024, from respiratory-related issues, according to her 2020 running mate, Ernest 'Adakabre' Frimpong Manso.

Here are five facts you probably didn’t know about her (culled from asaaseradio.com):

A farmer before politician

Donkor was born in Afigya Kwabre in the Ashanti Region and worked as a farmer and trader before entering politics.

She was an assemblywoman

In 2012, she founded the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) with the goal of fighting for the rights of the poor and marginalised in Ghana.

This was largely to help her ambitions to become president of Ghana.

Committed to her political goals

Despite facing numerous challenges and setbacks, Donkor has remained committed to her political goals and continues to be a prominent figure in Ghanaian politics.

She has run for president in multiple elections, although she has yet to win a significant number of votes.

Donkor told The Mirror in an exclusive interview that once she is elected president of the country, she will change the maternity leave for women from its original three months to one year to provide enough time for the nursing mother to take proper care of herself.

Admired for championing women rights

Donkor’s political platform is centered around advocating for the rights of farmers, women and the youth.
Donkor said she was concerned about the difficulty women faced in accessing funding for businesses or entrepreneurial jobs so her party would provide women with loans under very soft conditions.

She expressed regret that often women go in for loans but “when they don’t make good sales and don’t earn enough they are unable to repay the loans. These women end up in prisons, leaving behind their husbands and children.

In view of this, she told The Mirror she would make sure that women who had been jailed under those circumstances would be released from jail to come home to their families.

“I will then give them loans and give them three years before they settle their loans. This way, they will be able to use the money efficiently and earn enough to be able to repay the loans,” she stated.

Passionate about agriculture in Ghana

She has been a vocal critic of the government’s handling of agricultural issues and has called for more support for small-scale farmers.

The GFP flagbearer also said she was worried about the chemicals farmers used on their farms to control pests, saying those chemicals were often sprayed onto the crops which later “have diverse effects on our health because it gets into the produce.”

She also plans to provide the youth with farmlands

She told The Mirror she was worried about unemployment and said she would provide the youth with capital to start their businesses so that they would also earn some income to take care of themselves and live decent lives.

Advocate for anti-LGBTQ activities

The GFP flag bearer said she would deal seriously with those who engaged in same sex marriages.

According to Akua Donkor, the practice of LGBTQ activities is against the culture of the Ghanaian society and in addition contravenes the will of God.