President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo studied economics and law in Ghana and the United Kingdom He became a prominent human rights lawyer in Ghana during the 1970s military dictatorship and continued to defend the rule of law and human rights during his career his legal and subsequent political career for which he was awarded the 2016 Mother Theresa International Memorial Award for Social Justice. Elected to the Ghanaian Parliament in 1997, he was Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from 2001 to 2003, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2007. As the leader of the New Patriotic Party, he was elected president of Ghana in December 2016 and assumed office in January 2017. A champion of education one of his first acts as president was to make secondary education free for all Ghanaians. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo argues that free and high quality education is the key to Africa’s future as well as harnessing the potential and resources of the African diaspora rather than just relying on foreign aid.