Dominic Bingab Aduna Nitiwul

Dominic Bingab Aduna Nitiwul is a Ghanaian politician who has been the New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for Bimbilla in the Northern Region since 2005. He served as Minister of Defence for the whole of Nana Akufo-Addo's presidency, from February 2017 to January 2025.

Chamba and a seminary education

Nitiwul was born on 4 November 1977 at Chamba in the Northern Region. He completed his O Levels at St Charles Secondary and Seminary School in 1992. In the early 2000s he took courses in conflict prevention and conflict management at the International Academy for Leadership in Germany, a fitting subject for a politician from a district long troubled by chieftaincy disputes. He later earned an MBA in finance from the University of South Wales and a Master of Laws in corporate finance from the University of Westminster.

A young MP rises in the Minority

He won Bimbilla at the December 2004 election and took his seat in January 2005, aged 27. He kept the seat through the NDC years that followed and grew into a leading figure on the opposition benches, serving as Deputy Minority Leader under Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu before 2017. He also represented Ghana in the Pan-African Parliament.

Eight years at Defence

Akufo-Addo nominated him as Minister of Defence on 13 January 2017, and he was sworn in later that month. He was reappointed for the second term in 2021 and stayed until the change of government in January 2025, when Edward Omane Boamah succeeded him.

His tenure began with a crisis. In May 2017 Major Maxwell Mahama, an army officer on duty at Denkyira-Obuasi, was lynched by a mob, and the government ordered investigations; suspects were later put on trial. Nitiwul also oversaw the use of soldiers against illegal mining through the Operation Vanguard task force, and a steady build-up of military posts in the north as jihadist violence spread through Burkina Faso and the Sahel towards Ghana's border.

Bimbilla

At home he has pointed to boreholes, rural electrification, clinics, roads and school buildings delivered during his time in office. In December 2024, even as the NPP lost power nationally, he held Bimbilla with 34,553 votes against 29,240 for the NDC's Joseph Kwabena Manboah-Rockson, the same rival he beat in 2016.

Back in opposition

Since 2025 he has spoken for the Minority on security. After Omane Boamah was killed in a military helicopter crash on 6 August 2025 and Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson was asked to act at Defence, Nitiwul publicly urged President Mahama in October 2025 to appoint a substantive minister, warning that "terrorism is becoming endemic" in West Africa. He is married with five children.