Cletus Avoka Spearheads Government Business
When his parents decided to enrol him in the Teshie Primary School, near Zebilla in the Upper East Region in 1958, as the first of 13 children to be sent to school, little did they know that young Cletus Apul Avoka, will grow to become one of the stalwarts of the country’s democratic dispensation.
Although both parents, Avoka Akudugu and Madam Atotora Adongo, have passed on, they may be smiling in their graves and nodding their heads in appreciation of the good decision they took in view of the giant strides their son has taken in life.
From the day he enrolled in the Teshie Primary School, Mr Avoka has not looked back but continued to strive to achieve his cherished dream and now he is a lawyer occupying various sensitive positions in the country.
Currently, Mr Avoka is the Majority Leader in Parliament, which makes him the man who spearheads government business in the country’s legislature.
Born on November 30, 1951, the Majority Leader and Leader of the House is also the Member of Parliament for Zebilla, a seat he has occupied on four occasions since the country returned to constitutional rule in 1993.
He was in the first, second and third parliaments of the Fourth Republic but lost to the People’s National Convention (PNC) candidate and a colleague lawyer, Mr John Ndebugre in the 2004 general elections.
Mr Avoka, however, made a strong comeback in the 2008 elections to reclaim the seat from Mr Ndebugre in the 2008 general elections in a fiercely contested election.
After obtaining his ordinary and advanced level certificates at the Navrongo Secondary School, Mr Avoka entered the country’s premier university, University of Ghana, Legon, where he obtained a Bachelor of Law Degree (LLB) in 1976 and post graduate Diploma in Law in 1978 (Barrister at Law).
The Majority Leader who has had a wide range of working experience since qualifying as a lawyer, served as a legal officer in the Upper Regional Development Corporation and was responsible for the decentralised development of the Upper East Region from 1980-1983 and later rose to become the Managing Director of the corporation in 1985.
He left public office to become a private legal practitioner in 1987 and was appointed a member of the Consultative/Constituent Assembly that drafted the 1992 Constitution, that ushered in the Fourth Republic.
While serving as an MP, he was appointed the Upper East Regional Minister from August 1995 to March 1997. In April 1997, he was re-assigned as the Minister of Lands and Forestry where he served until November 1998.
Following a Cabinet shuffle in December 1998, Mr Avoka was re-assigned as the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology and worked in that position until the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost power in the 2004 election during which he also lost his seat in Parliament.
When the NDC won back power and he regained his seat in Parliament in 2008, Mr Avoka was appointed as the Minister of the Interior and after almost one year in office, the lot fell on him to become the Majority Leader in Parliament, a replacement of the then Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, who was assigned the new reponsibility to become the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing.
Mr Avoka’s interest covers areas including matters on good governance, local government administration and participatory democracy and decentralisation.
Other areas include issues on legal, constitutional and human rights activities, sustainable land and forest management affairs that relate to good governance and accountability, gender equity and peace building as well as current affairs and gardening.
The Majority Leader is a Catholic but is also supportive and understanding of other religions. He told The Mirror that last year, he supported four muslims to participate in the annual muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mr Avoka is married to Margaret (nee Agbenyega) who hails from Bakpah in the North Tong District of the Volta Region.
Mrs Avoka, who is a graduate of the University of Ghana Business School, holds a BSc in Accounting and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) programme at the University of Ghana, Legon. She is a Senior Accountant at the Dansoman Polyclinic.
The couple’s four children are Daniel Mbawuni Avoka, Anthony Akubase Avoka, Linda Asumboya Avoka and Maxwell Amaleba Avoka.
Daniel is a graduate in Information Communication Technology, (ICT) and works with MTN, Anthony is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Development Studies in Tamale, Linda is a third-year student at the Catholic University, Fiapre, while Maxwell is a first-year Civil Engineering student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi.