Obed Asamoah

Who is Obed Asamoah?

Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah is a politician from Ghana. Asamoah is the longest serving foreign minister and Attorney General of Ghana under Jerry Rawlings from 1981 to 1997. Asamoah was educated at King's College London and at Columbia University. He was a lecturer in Law at the University of Ghana. Some of his famous students include Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Tsatsu Tsikata, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, current flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party, etc. In 2002, Asamoah replaced Rawlings as head of the opposition National Democratic Congress, beating former defense minister Alhaji Iddrisu by just 2 votes. In 2006, he lost his chairmanship position in the party. Not long after the defeat, he later resigned from the party. After accusations of having "stolen" about a 10 thousand cedis in the mid-90s, on August 28, 2006, he and other politicians launched a new political party, the Democratic Freedom Party of which he is the life Patron. Despite speculation that Asamoah would run for President in 2008, he declared that he never intended to run for the presidency and would not seek the Presidency but instead work to win victory for his party in that year's national elections. In October 2011, Dr. Obed Asamoah and his Democratic Freedom Party re-joins the National Democratic Congress which he helped form. He described as "wasteful thinking", suggestions that the DFP merged with the NDC because of ministerial appointment offers. He said the decision by the party to re-unite with the NDC is purely based on the growing internal democracy within the NDC.