Political Widows: The Women Who Entered Parliament After the Deaths of Their Husbands
YEN.com.gh looks at the widows who entered politics to fill the space left by their late husbands.
Ahead of the Ayawaso East by-election, the widow of the deceased MP, Naser Toure Mahama, has once again stepped up to contest the election.
Hajia Amina Adam plans to contest the forthcoming parliamentary by-election in the constituency set for March 3.
Source: Facebook
Adam plans to contest on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress and joins a list of six aspirants to pick up nomination forms.
The widow is expected to face stiff competition from Ghana’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mohammed Baba Jamal.
She will join the tradition of political widows who fill the gaps in partisan politics left by their deceased spouses.
YEN.com.gh looks at the widows who have ridden on the death of their husbands to Parliament.
Women who entered Parliament after being widowed
Lydia Seyram Alhassan
Alhassan was the second wife of the Member of Parliament of the Ayawaso West Wuogon, Kyeremanteng Agyarko, who passed away on November 21, 2018, in the US after a long illness.
Maa Lydia, as she is affectionately called, was selected by her party, the New Patriotic Party, and elected to Parliament after a contentious by-election process in 2019 that was marred by violence. Alhassan won her first full term in 2020 and lost her seat to John Dumelo in 2024.
Alhassan's selection to enter Parliament marked the third time a widow had been elected to Parliament, directly succeeding her late husband in the same constituency.
Ophelia Mensah Hayford
Hayford, the widow of Ekow Kwansah Hayford, a late Member of Parliament for Mfantseman, was elected to Parliament after her husband's death.
The NPP legislator was killed by suspected armed robbers on a highway on the evening of October 9, 2020, 58 days to the 2020 general election.
Four days after he was slain, the NPP selected his wife, then a police officer with the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police, to replace the late MP after she stepped up.
Lydia Lamisi Akanvariva
Akanvariva became the Tempane MP after the death of her husband, David Adakudugu, in 2019.
Adakudugu had died after a short illness, after winning his National Democratic Congress parliamentary primary.
Akanvariva contested in the 2020 general election and overcame a former Deputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka.
Source: Facebook
Cecilia Gyan Amoah
Amoah was the widow of Professor Philip Kofi Amoah, the NPP Parliamentary candidate for Asutifi South, who died a few days before the 2000 general elections.
She succeeded her husband as the candidate in Asutifi South and won the election, which had been postponed.
Amoah went on to represent the Asutifi South Constituency from 2000 to 2005. She lost her party's primary to Thomas Broni, a deputy Minister for the Interior at the time. She was the first woman legislator in the NPP to lose a reelection bid. She passed away on January 12, 2023.
Linda Obenewaa Akweley Ocloo
Ocloo stood on the ticket of the NDC after her husband, William Ocloo, who was then the Parliamentary candidate, died in a road accident in May 2016 at Juaso in the Asante Akyem South District of the Ashanti Region. He was 46.
A month later, Ocloo took his place in the parliamentary primary and defeated Dr Kpessah White and eventually entered Parliament by winning the main election in the NDC stronghold.
She has remained in Parliament since then.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
