ABU SAKARA

Fifty-four year old Dr. Michael Abu Sakara Foster is a Specialist in Agriculture and Rural Development (Development Agronomist). He hails from Damongo in the Northern Region and is married to Mary-Lily Kafela (MBA), an Economist and Business Administrator. They have four Children. Their eldest daughter, Miama Weppia (MSc), is an Economist and works in a bank in Ghana. Seidu Sakara (MSc), their only son, holds an M.Sc. in Information Technology and Business at the London School of Economics and works in an Oil and Gas company in the country. Their third child, Yomba Biba (BSc.), has also completed a degree in Biology and Business at the University of London, Queen Marys’ College and lastly, Alexia-Michelle studied at the London School of Arts. He speaks six languages mainly Gonja, Hausa, Swahili, Twi, English and Spanish. He belongs to the Guan and Gonja family in the Northern region. His paternal roots are in the Kekulasi clan from Bole. Kekulasi is linked to the seat of the Yabungwura (King of Gonja) as Chief Councillor and Custodian of the secrets of kingdom. Dr. Abu Sakara was born to a teacher and politician, Mr. S. S. Sakara, son of Keulasi Wura Bamatu Borkma I and mother, Hajiah Abiba Isaah, who hails from Eastern Gonja. His late father was a District Commissioner and Member of Parliament for Damongo-Daboya Consitutency and a Regional Secretary of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) for Northern region. At age six years, Dr. Sakara began education in Kpembe Primary school, East Gonja and furthered to Sawla Primary school. After the 1966 coup, he advanced to Yendi Secondary school as a pioneer in 1972 and later studied in the United Kingdom where he obtained his first degree in Soil Science from the University of Reading. Dr. Sakara trained for a year as a research Scholar at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria. He also worked as an Associate Scientist at the International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement in Mexico. He completed his PhD at age 27 and took up appointments in Southern, Eastern, Central and West Africa consecutively. He is an Executive Director of an international consulting firm in Rural and Agricultural Development. He also operates a real estate. Pursuing his political career, he became a running mate of the 2008 Presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, now a Presidential aspirant of the People’s Progressive Party. After, 2008, he was elected flagbearer and Presidential candidate of the party respectively and currently is contesting the Presidential race in the 2012 elections. He has pledged his commitment to transforming CPP to provide Ghanaians an alternative choice to the two dominant parties, specifically the National Democratic Party and the New Patriotic Party. He hopes to emancipate the country from the antagonism that has characterized the two major parties. Dr. Abu Sakara believes that the country's democracy will be beneficial to Ghanaians when the political landscape is depolarized to produce a formidable opposition that becomes a third force to reckon with in Government. Dr Sakara has supported parliamentarians in four constituencies in northern Ghana since 1996 and participated in two election campaigns. Dr. Sakara contested in the 2007 congress and won a position as the first National Vice Chairman of the CPP.