Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed

Dr Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed was a Ghanaian politician of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). He was Member of Parliament for Nanton and later Tamale Central, a deputy minister under John Mahama's first government, and Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation from February 2025 until his death in a military helicopter crash on 6 August 2025.

Early life and education

He was born on 14 December 1974 in Tamale. He attended Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) in Tamale and earned a Teacher's Certificate 'A' from Tamale College of Education. He went on to earn a law degree from Mount Crest University, a master's in development planning from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and a master's in international relations and diplomacy and a PhD in political science from the University of Ghana. His doctoral thesis assessed the committee system of Ghana's Parliament.

Political career

He first came to national attention when President John Evans Atta Mills appointed him Deputy National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme. He won the Nanton seat in the 2012 election and served one term, losing it in 2016. Under President John Dramani Mahama he was Deputy Minister of Information and Media Relations and then Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry between 2013 and 2017. For more than a decade he was also one of the NDC's leading spokesmen.

He won Tamale Central in 2020 and held it in 2024, serving in the Eighth and Ninth Parliaments. In February 2025 President Mahama made him Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, a ministry at the centre of the fight against illegal mining.

Death

On 6 August 2025 he was among eight people killed when a Ghana Air Force Z-9 helicopter crashed in the Adansi area of the Ashanti Region on the way to an anti-galamsey event in Obuasi. The Defence Minister, Edward Omane Boamah, also died. In keeping with Islamic tradition he was buried the next day, 7 August 2025. He was married with three children.