The Ghanaian Minaret

Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed was born in Tamale on December 14, 1974, as the 19th of 23 children.

He was the son of a trader and a Muslim cleric who had four wives.

Dr Murtala would rise to become a prominent Ghanaian Muslim politician and a public servant known for his competence and dedication to Allah and his country.

At a tender age, he was instinctively imbibed with the value of selflessness, hard work and servitude.

In an interview on Channel One TV, a Ghanaian private television station, he recalled his younger self doing all the dishes and cleaning up after the household had had their supper.

He would also trek five kilometres daily to fetch water and help his mother cook for the family.

“My mum used to sell all of these items in the market, so in the morning my mum would put some of her things on my head, and I would go round and sell before I came back and took my bath and went to school,” he recalled.

He was a communal person who attributed his success in life to the collective efforts of his family and community.

As a candid individual who never shied away from his religious belief, he decided to study Bible knowledge as a free elective during his study at the University of Ghana Legon.

His educational career started at home with his father, who was known to make him recite the Quran every morning as a means of earning his upkeep for the day.

This incident would take place after every dawn prayer.

Dr Murtala’s formal education began at Methodist Primary and Junior High School, also known as Kulikuli School, in Tamale.

He would pursue his secondary education at the Ghana Senior High (GHANASCO) and later become a trained teacher by acquiring Teacher’s Certificate A from Tamale College of Education (TACE).

He later went to the University of Ghana, Legon, to pursue his first degree in psychology and then to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology for a master’s degree in development planning.

He later returned to the University of Ghana for a second master’s degree in international relations and diplomacy and a PhD in political science from the same university.

He also had a law degree from Mountcrest University College.

In his formative years in the university, he served as the General Secretary of the All-African Students Union (AASU) in 1999, focusing on educational reforms and youth engagement.

A decade later, he was appointed Deputy National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) under the late John Evans Atta Mills administration.

In 2012, he entered parliament as the Member of Parliament for Nanton Constituency, serving in the sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.

After a loss in 2016, he successfully contested and won the seat for the Tamale Central Constituency in 2020.

He got re-elected as MP in the 2024 elections due to his good works.

As MP for Tamale Central, Dr Murtala Muhammed was credited with numerous projects, including renovating schools, providing free classes and supplies for students, establishing a tertiary education support fund, and introducing a mobile library.

In the health sector, he was responsible for awarding scholarships to medical students, providing medical equipment, and constructing three health facilities.

He helped develop inner-city roads in areas like Changli and Gumbihini and drilled 80 mechanised boreholes.

Before his demise, he managed to secure hundreds of jobs for constituents, provided financial support for women entrepreneurs, and facilitated the construction of an artificial turf field.

In the first term of President John Dramani Mahama, Dr Murtala was appointed and would serve as the Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations and subsequently Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry.

He was also a farmer who has two tractors and a lot of cattles.

In January 2025, President John Mahama appointed Murtala as the substantive Minister for Environment, Science and Technology.

He assumed office on the 12th of February upon his vetting and approval by the Parliament.

Dr Murtala has an enviable record of being incorruptible, a position well echoed by investigative journalists, Manasseh Azure Awuni in his book, The Voice of Conscience.

He embodied a principle of doing no harm, including stealing from or cheating anyone, as he feared he would be made to account for his deeds on Judgement Day.

While serving as Minister of State, he died on August 6, 2025, in a helicopter crash that claimed the lives of eight people, including another minister of state.

They were en route to Obuasi for the launch of a community mining programme, an initiative to curb the growing illegal mining menace in the Ashanti region.

He was married with four children.