Eva Naa Merley Lokko (died 6 October 2016) was a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian civil servant,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

and politician. She was the first woman to be chosen as the Vice-Presidential candidate of the Progressive People's Party (PPP). She partnered the

flagbearer A standard-bearer, also known as a flag-bearer is a person (soldier or civilian) who bears an emblem known as a standard or military colours, i.e. either a type of flag or an inflexible but mobile image, which is used (and often honoured) as a ...

of the PPP,

Paa Kwesi Nduom Paa Kwesi Nduom or Papa Kwesi Nduom, (born February 15, 1953) is a Ghanaian business consultant, politician, and founding member of Ghana's Progressive People's Party. A three-time nominee for president, he was the member of parliament for the ...

in the 2012 Presidential and parliamentary elections. She was the first female managing director of the

Ghana Broadcasting Corporation The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was established by law in 1968 with a triple mandate as a State Broadcaster, Public Service Broadcaster, and a Commercial Broadcaster in Ghana. Headquartered in the capital city, Accra, it is funded by gra ...

Early life and education

Lokko was from a Ga-Adangbe ethnic group. Lokko attended

Wesley Girls' High School Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism ...

in Cape Coast where she was a student athlete and sports captain who competed and won trophies in hurdles, javelin 100-metres, relays and high jump. She was an engineer by profession and held

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Satellite Communications Engineering from the then

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

(USSR) and a

in Intelligent Management Systems, System Analysis and Design from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Working life

Lokko was the first

Satellite Communications A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. ...

Engineer and the first woman engineer to be employed at the

(GBC) in 1972. She was part of the engineering team that installed and maintained Ghana's first colour television infrastructure in 1985. She worked in more than forty countries across the world in various capacities. She served as regional programmes coordinator of the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...

initiative for

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

development in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. She also served with the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

for thirteen years and as chair of the UN Federation of International Civil Servants Association and the United Nations Staff Council and as a member of the UNDP News Advisory Board. In 2002, she was appointed

Director-General A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of the GBC, becoming the first and only woman to hold that position since the corporation was established in 1953. She worked in that role until 2005 when she was replaced by Yaw Owusu Add

Lokko was also the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Totally Youth, a

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

(NGO) based in Accra, Ghana. She was a member of the

Regent University College of Science and Technology The Regent University College of Science and Technology (often referred to as Regent-Ghana) is located in Accra, Ghana. It was registered in September 2003, and received accreditation to operate as a tertiary institution in 2004. In January 2005 ...

council, after her death the university immortalized her by instituting a scholarship scheme ''''Eva Lokko Scholarship'''' to be given out to brilliant but needy female student.

Political career

Vice Presidential bid

She was a member of the Progressive People's Party. In the lead up to the 2012 Ghanaian Presidential election, she was chosen by the founder and flagbearer of the Progressive People's Party,

as his running mate, making her the first woman to be selected as a Vice Presidential Candidate for the party. At the end of the elections the incumbent president,

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as pres ...

of the National Democratic Congress emerged winner with 5,574,761 votes whilst the PPP placed third with 64,362 votes.

Member of parliament bid

Ahead of the 2016 elections, Lokko had declared her intention to stand for the parliamentary elections for Klottey Korley Constituency on the ticket of the PPP. Until her death she was billed to compete in a tough contest against Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings of the NDC, daughter of

Jerry Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the de ...

and Philip Addison of the NPP. The election was subsequently won by Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings.

Religious life

A Christian, Lokko was a member of the

Methodist Church of Ghana The Methodist Church Ghana is one of the largest and oldest mainline Protestant denominations in Ghana. It traces its roots back to the landing of the Rev. Joseph Dunwell on 1 January 1835 in Cape Coast, in the Gold Coast (now Ghana). The Re ...

. She was a member of the highest decision-making bodies of the church—Conference and Synod. She was also the chairperson of the Youth Advisory Board and served on other committees of the church in various capacities. She also served as the church's National ICT consultant.

Personal life

Lokko hailed from the

Greater Accra Region The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the second most populated region, befor ...

of Ghana and was fluent in several local and international languages. She spoke Ga,

Twi Twi () is a dialect of the Akan language spoken in southern and central Ghana by several million people, mainly of the Akan people, the largest of the seventeen major ethnic groups in Ghana. Twi has about 17-18 million speakers in total, includ ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

and French. She was married to Nii K. Bentsi-Enchill and together they had two children.

Death and burial

She died on 6 October 2016 at the age of 64, in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

where she was receiving treatment after a short battle with ill-health. She was buried on 18 November 2016 at the Osu cemetery after a memorial service was held at the forecourt of the State House. The service was attended by notable politicians and civil servants including the flagbearer of PPP, Paa Kwesi Nduom and his running mate

Brigitte Dzogbenuku Brigitte Dzogbenuku is a Ghanaian politician and beauty queen who won Miss Ghana 1990. During 2020, she was the presidential candidate for the Progressive People's Party. Education Dzogbenuku had her secondary education at Wesley Girls High S ...

, Naana Jane Opoku Agyeman the then Minister of Education, Stephen Adei a former Rector of the GIMPA and her contenders for the Klottey Korle constituency, Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings of the NDC, daughter of former President Rawlings and Phillip Addison of the NPP.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lokko, Eva Naa Merley 2016 deaths Ghanaian engineers Broadcasting in Ghana Year of birth missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing Ga-Adangbe people 21st-century Ghanaian women politicians People educated at Wesley Girls' Senior High School Ghanaian women engineers Progressive People's Party (Ghana) politicians