Ghana President nominates visually impaired as Minister

President John Dramani Mahama at the weekend nominated Dr Henry Seidu Daannaa, a visually impaired lawyer, as the Minister for Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs.

Dr Daannaa, who hails from Tuaha, in the Upper West Region, was born in 1955, and obtained a Doctorate and a degree in Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science between 1986 and 1992.

Ghana News Agency (GNA) learned that he also obtained a Masters’ degree in Law from the same University in 1982 after having completed an undergraduate law programme at the University of Ghana, between 1979 and 1981.

Since 1994, Dr Daannaa has been directing research into chieftaincy disputes for the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy among other things, and served as a research adviser to the National House of Chiefs.

He is recognised by the General Legal Council as the first Blind Barrister in Ghana, and now the first blind Minister of State.

On October 3, 1997, the General Legal Council, conferred a Special Prize Award on Dr Daanaa in recognition of his achievement as the first blind man to be trained as a lawyer at the Ghana School of Law, and to be enrolled on the list of lawyers in Ghana.

He currently serves as the National Director of Research at the Ministry of Culture and Chieftaincy and has also worked on the codification of Chieftaincy lines of succession for 21 paramount stools in the country.

The Minister nominee has also done a lot of research work on Chieftaincy issues which he published in the United Kingdom and was a member of the board of trustees of the Ghana Society for the Blind between 1995 and 1999.

Source: GNA