Former Ghana Football Association (GFA) Chairman, Alhaji MND Jawula, has died at the age of 73, in Nashville, United States of America, Saturday, January 21, 2023.
At the time of going to press, reports were that the veteran football administrator and politician of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) stock, was to be buried yesterday, Sunday, January 22 in the US, in line with his Islamic practice.
He was the leader of Ghana’s football governing body from 1997 to 2001. He had shared the football spot with another soccer lover, Samuel Nana Brew-Butler.
Alhaji Jawula, had once expressed interest in becoming the running mate of Nana Akufo-Addo, during one of the debates, as to who aside Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, should partner him then NPP flagbearer. Before then, many didn’t know him to be a staunch NPP supporter.
Before his rise to the top of Ghana football administration, Alhaji Jawula, was chairman of the 1995 Black Starlets team that won the World Cup in Ecuador.
He last served as Chairman of the seven-member Ghana Premier League Management Committee from 2019.
Alhaji Jawula, was also a board member of Real Tamale United and a CAF Interclub Committee Member.
Aside from football, he was the Lepowura of the Kujolobite Gate of Lepo-Kpempe in the Northern Region.
The former chairman of the GFA, would have clocked 74 years in May.
His reign saw the U-17 team place 2nd and 3rd in the 1997 and 1999 World Cups respectively, and the U-20 placing 2nd in the 2001 World Cup edition.
Until his death, he was the chairman of the Ghana Premier League Management Committee, a CAF Interclub Committee member and board member of GPL side, Real Tamale United.
He was born at Cowlane, a suburb of Accra in May 1949 to an affluent Ghanaian family. His father was the chief of Kpandai and as a result, he was sent to the north together with his mother and step-siblings when he was three years old.
Jawula started politics in secondary school and became a school prefect at Tamale Secondary School.
After sixth form, the young Jawula gained admission to the University of Cape Coast in 1968, where he read English and Economics for his first degree.
He pursued a Master’s programme in African Literature at the University of Ghana, Legon.
In 1989, he travelled to Canada as a fellow at the University of Carlton, Ottawa. On his return, he worked in a number of ministries, including the Ministry of Finance as an administrator, Chief Director, Ministry of Harbours and Railways and the Ministry of Health and retired honourably.
