Benjamin Bewa-Nyog Kunbuor, is a Ghanaian politician with a PhD in Law coming from a deprived area in Northern Ghana. He is the Minister for Justice and Attorney General and was once a Member of Parliament for Lawra-Nandon constituency in the upper west region.
Even though Dr Kunbuor is generally known to be a politician and currently the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, most people may be unaware of his immense contribution to the academia. Apart from his field of academic experience including socio-legal research in Law and Development, specializing in law and Economic Relations, Dr Kunbuor also has extensive knowledge in Law and Taxation.
Dr Kunbuor once worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, responsible for holding seminars for undergraduate students in constitutional and Administrative Law as well as Law and Development programmes, among others.
With nine publications to his credit and once part time lectured at the Ghana School of Law, he has also been a director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice in Ghana; responsible for operations, general investigations and complaints of Human Rights violations.
In the telecommunication sector, Dr Kunbuor is well-versed in Telecommunications and Broadcasting regulations. He is also an expert on security sector Governance, constitutional law and Human Rights and Development.
As a multi-task person, his expertise in the financial sector includes Banking and Securities Regulations, Corporate Finance and law on pensions.
Benjamin Kunbuor is a member of the National Democratic Congress. He first stood for election in the 2000 parliamentary election and won with a majority of 62.5%. He retained his seat in the following election for four years, but lost it after the 2008 elections when his party came back to power and thus appointed Deputy Minister of Health.
Dr Kunbuor in 2009 was appointed Minister of Health after George Yankey the then minister, resigned from the NDC government following a corruption scandal.
Following a cabinet reshuffle in January 2011, Kunbuor was appointed Minister for Interior by President Mills.
When Martin Amidu, Attorney General and Minister of Justice resigned in January 2012, Dr. Kunbuor was appointed Attorney General and Minister of Justice by President John Evans Atta-Mills.
Dr Kunbuor has received several awards including the British Chevening Scholarship and the University of Warwick Overseas Students Award (OSSA) Doctoral Award. Others are distinguished Performance as Ranking Member of the Defence /Interior Committee of the Third and Fourth Republic of Ghana as well as Minister of the Year 2010 award.
Due to his expertise and knowledge in Law, he has served on several committees while in Parliament including the ranking member for Finance, ranking member of Defence /Interior Parliamentary Committees.
He also served as a Member of Parliament of the Constitutional, Parliamentary and Legal committees, as well as the Subsidiary Legislation; Judiciary and standing order committee.
He is also multi-lingual and speaks English, Hausa and Dagaare.
Dr Kunbuor is married to Victoria Kunbuor and they are blessed with three lovely children. He likes to play Lawn tennis, listen to music and read widely.
Dr Kunbuor in 2012 contested to represent the Nandom constituency in the Upper West Region of Ghana in Parliament on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress. He won the seat and was appointed Majority Leader in Parliament under the John Dramani Mahama led Goverment fo the next four years.
In his capacity both as a politician and academician, Dr Kunbuor presented selected papers on these topics “The concept of Security and the New International Security Regime” and “the issue of poverty in Northern Ghana”.
The others are “Techniques for Investigating Fraud and Corruption — The Ghanaian experience” and “New Consciousness on Human Rights and Administrative Abuses”.