Finding perfect fits for any sensitive position is perhaps one of the most difficult, especially when the consequences of the actions and inactions of the prospective candidate could make or unmake a colossal agenda as crucial as a presidential contest.

It’s for no fanciful reason that the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has, for several months, appeared to be searching for a pin in the haystack, choosing the best candidate to partner with him for Election 2024.

A Northerner chosen to lead the NPP, which has its umbilical cord buried in the roots of the Ashanti-Akyim lineage (with no denigration to Dombo), Dr. Bawumia is well aware of his duty to please the real owners of the party, at least by placating them with a candidate from their kindred.

A Muslim presidential candidate in a Christian-dominated country, Dr. Bawumia knows that just attending church programs and quoting the Bible will not suffice to rally the Christian fold behind him.

He is also confronted with a gender card being played by the opposition leader, John Dramani Mahama, who has chosen Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as the vice presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Many names have made the jostling list, demonstrating varied qualities and hoping to tick as many boxes as possible.

Manhyia South MP and Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, a full-blood Ashanti with roots from the hallowed Manhyia Palace; and Bosomtwe MP and Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, an Ashanti and educationist who has overseen the NPP’s flagship Free Senior High School Program, appear to be the forerunners.

Other notable personalities considered fit for the role include Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah, former Chairman of the Pentecost Church-Ghana, who appears to present that religious balance.

Chief of Staff in the President Akufo Addo administration, Akosua Frema Opare, has also been tipped to do both the gender and north-south balancing trick.

However, the beggar believes that a certain candidate who has found favor in the eyes of President Akufo Addo has not been noticed, at least per the names that have publicly surfaced.

She is a corporate and governance professional of international repute; she leads high-level nation-to-nation pacts; she is a woman reverend minister whose style of preaching intertwined with popular Afrobeats songs has endeared her to the youth; she has a huge social media following; she is a royal from the Manhyia Palace; she is a guru who has led private and public institutions; and the list goes on and on.

This is Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng, appointed by President Nana Akufo Addo in March 2023, as a board member of the Electoral Commission.

Who is Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng?

Reverend Akua Buabema Ofori-Boateng is the country manager for ILF Consulting Engineers Ghana, an engineering firm headquartered in Austria.

Rev. Akua is a priest in the Anglican Diocese of Accra, where she serves at Holy Trinity Cathedral. She is actually the first female director of programs for the Anglican Diocese of Accra.

A true Ashanti, Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng offers her expertise to Manhyia, who serves as a member of the Board of the Otumfuo Osei Tutu II Foundation (OOTIIF).

She is the founder and managing director of Sabine Solutions Limited, a company providing market entry & business development services for global firms.

Prior to founding Sabine Solutions, Rev. Akua worked as a Researcher with the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), where she published articles in prestigious industry journals.

She worked for Cummins Incorporated, initially as a Design Engineer and then as a Procurement Manager.

Between 2014 and 2016, she served as a general manager for the Bulk Oil Storage & Transportation Company (BOST), the state-owned downstream oil and gas company.

An avid believer in the need to be of value to one’s community, she has served as a Commissioner on the Indiana Human Rights Commission, a Board Member for the State of Indiana Advocates for Children, and the Chairman of the Cummins African and African American Affinity Group.

Her leadership and commitment to volunteerism won her the 2009 ‘20 Under 40 Entrepreneurship Award’ in Indiana, USA.

In 2018, she was selected to serve on the U.S. Trade Representative’s Trade Advisory Committee on Africa (TACA).

Comprising American and African industry leaders, the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa advises the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) as it encourages economic development across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Rev. Akua is also the co-founder and executive director of Aequitas, a faith-based foundation that has the vision to become the leading NGO in Africa, where organizations can source young, highly skilled tertiary graduates.

Several tertiary students who qualified for this training have been moulded into self-aware, passionate, and fit-for-purpose youth through personalized grooming and training.

Her book, Broken for Use, is a deeply moving personal and spiritual memoir that has been touted as a best seller and endorsed by the likes of Elizabeth Ohene, Professor Mercy Oduyoye, and Reverend Dr. Joyce Aryee.

Her Education:

Rev. Akua is a graduate of Ghana International School. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Miami University and a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

The astute academic also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Indiana University and a Master of Arts in Ministry degree from Trinity Theological Seminary in Ghana.

It is virtually impossible to fully exhaust her laurels and achievements in public, private, national, continental, and global affairs in this article.

What She Brings to the Bawumia Ticket:

On the gender card, Rev Akua Ofori Boateng is a woman, a mother, a mentor, and a female corporate and religious leader who has wide positive reviews not only in Ghana but Across the world. Her position as a board member for the State of Indiana Advocates for Children clearly stands out.

On the North-South appeal, which appears to sound loudest from the Ashanti Region, the party’s stronghold, Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng, bears no deficit. She is favored even before Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, whose foundation she serves as a board member.

On the religious divide, Rev. Akua is a colossus whose youthful appeal and unique style of preaching make her a delightful amalgam of both the conservative Anglican priest and an all-out Charismatic blend. She has been featured in several conferences from the Pentecostal and Charismatic folds.

In fact, her unique dexterity for finding lines in contemporary sing-along Afrobeat music to preach messages has caught on with the youth, especially on social media, where she enjoys huge patronage and following.

Using this prowess on any campaign trail will ripple huge waves that could sweep the nation by storm. No one, not the Millennials, Gen Zs, or older folk, can resist her.

Putting her head to head with Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, whose biggest trump cards are her role as Minister of Education and the first Vice Chancellor for the University of Cape Coast, Rev. Akua appears to tower above with a wider and more extensive scope of leadership that could be extremely useful to the governance of a country.

Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng’s strong international ties with powerful countries both in the Western and Eastern blocks are strategic advantages for any country to leverage to broker any needed aid and support for a struggling nation like Ghana.

Persons who have worked closely with Rev. Akua in her corporate governance jackets tell beautiful stories about how she championed and led transformative programs and policies that turned around the fortunes of those institutions.

With the overwhelming admission that Ghana’s developmental problems are a function of leadership, Ghana will not want to pass up a leader who comes with that grit for thinking outside the box to rescue corporations when things are headed south.

On the heated political train, Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng, who managed BOST under an NDC administration, appears to have silenced the opposition NDC without speaking a word when she was appointed a member of the EC Board.

After the NDC attacked all three, including Salima Ahmed Tijani and Dr. Peter Appiahene, the party appeared to have dropped her name, realizing she was too holy an angel with a great deal of clout to bite.

This is the candidate the New Patriotic Party, with all its big spectacles, has not noticed as a candidate worthy of partnering with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as a vice presidential candidate.

Indeed, choosing such a woman brings up the same surprise element that greeted the appointment of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia as vice presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party for the 2008 elections.

This rather colossal surprise element will place Dr. Bawumia within the realm of invincibility, having chosen a candidate who does not hail from any of the power struggle camps but appeals to all the power-jostling camps in the party.

In Rev. Akua Ofori Boateng, Dr Bawumia has the opportunity to appease all the camps making difficult demands before him. He has someone who also complements him in all the deficits that he hopes to measure up to.

Why head for choppy waters when a candidate provides you with a very peaceful tide that will propel your ship into the same greatness both you and the people you seek to serve could find solace in?

Unfortunately, Ivan Heathcote-Fumador is only a journalist and can only write an opinion piece. I have no authority or privileged closeness to the vice president, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia. A little advice from a distance could help, though.