ASHLEY STALNECKER | Staff WriterIf being Millersville University’s president seems like a heavy responsibility, imagine serving as king of a tribe in Ghana at the same time.
Daniel Wubah does just that. At birth, he was tapped to one day ascend the throne as a Ghanaian tribal king. A flock of seven white egrets gathered outside his family home the day he was born in 1960 was a sign that a potential leader had been born. As a result Wubah was mentored to take the throne.
Nearly 60 years later, on Sept. 18, 2017, Wubah ascended to the throne of the Akan tribe, which is centered on Breman Asikuma with a population of about 140,000 in southern part of the West African nation of Ghana. Just six months later and more than 5,000 miles away, Wubah became president of MU.
In Ghana he bears the royal name Nana Ofosu Peko III, while in Lancaster County he’s often known as President or Dr. Wubah.
According to Wubah, he’s the first Ghanaian-born American to serve as president to an American university and likely the only Ghanaian tribal king to hold such a high position outside of his royal duties.
As king, he’s considered a living representative of his tribe’s ancestors, and is therefore responsible for the wellbeing and welfare of his people. That includes securing funds for his tribe’s well-being, resolving land disputes and marital conflicts and preparing rituals when a member of the community dies.
As the 15th president of MU, Wubah manages institutional finances, plans for the university's future and provides information to the campus in a timely manner.
“I never expected myself to be occupying both roles at the same time,” Wubah said. “Being a president is by itself difficult enough, but having the second part, being a king, often makes it challenging. But, I’m blessed to have a family, especially my wife that helps.”
On a typical day, Wubah will wake at around 5 a.m. to handle affairs in Breman Asikuma by phone before starting on his presidential duties. Ghana has a time difference of four to five hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast.
While Wubah’s on MU’s campus, his wife, Judith, takes calls or text messages from Breman Asikuma, determining whether the issue at hand warrants notifying her husband immediately.
“Truthfully, it can be exhausting at times,” Judith Wubah said of her duties as a first lady and king’s wife. “But overall, it is an honor and a blessing.”
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‘He’s just trying to help people’
Over time, Daniel Wubah’s connection between the two communities has created partnerships that benefit both.
As MU president, he became quick friends with Lancaster County philanthropists and business owners Sam and Dena Lombardo. The Lombardos are recognized as Fiat Lux Society members – a prestigious club for MU’s top benefactors.
“The man works very hard,” Sam Lombardo said of Wubah. “He’s just trying to help people. He’s trying to help his university students here. He’s trying to help his natives in Ghana… Lancaster County is very fortunate to have people like the Wubahs.”
The Wubahs took the Lombardos on a trip with them to Breman Asikuma in the summer of 2022. While on that trip, Wubah said the Lombardos determined they would sponsor a project to build the first library in Breman Asikuma. The Lombardo Community Library opened there in July.
“God helps them who help themselves,” Lombardo said. “When you see someone making an effort to help themselves, your heart goes out to them, to give them a helping hand… and the Wubahs are very genuine, wonderful, giving people.”
Sam and Dena Lombardo sponsored a project to build what Millersville University President and Ghanaian Tribal King Daniel Wubah said is the first library in Breman Asikuma, a traditional area in the Central Region of Ghana. Named for its sponsor, the Lombardo Community Library opened in July.
Next, Lombardo said he’s partnering with Daniel Wubah to expand and renovate the Healthwise Hospital in Breman Asikuma. The goal, he said, is to raise $4 million to increase the number of rooms in the hospital from 18 to 50 and purchase modern equipment.
Already, Lombardo said Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has been donating used equipment to Wubah’s tribe. Wubah is on LG Health’s board of trustees.
“Those connections work both ways,” Lombardo said. “Not only are they good from Ghana to the U.S., but they’re wonderful from the U.S. to Ghana.”
These tangible connections build on the intangible values in which Daniel Wubah follows to lead both communities. The core principles he applies to leadership in Ghana, he said, align with MU’s core values.
“It makes it easy for me to wear both hats,” Daniel Wubah said, listing values of empathy, integrity and compassion. “You have to put yourself in other people’s shoes.
Empathy in particular helps in addressing one of Wubah’s major responsibilities: conflict resolution.
Seeing a conflict like a land dispute or a couple’s petition for divorce – two common issues he resolves as king – is important, Wubah said, but it’s a difficult skill that’s taken time to hone. With age and experience, though, he said it’s become easier.
“The more cases are handled, the more things I’ve seen,” he said. “You mature into the role. I think that is one of the key pieces of being able to succeed in this role.”
Most importantly, Wubah said he flips the pyramid in leadership – choosing not to view constituents as below him, but instead as if he’s serving them.
“I’m carrying the communities on my shoulders,” he said.
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‘A work in progress’
Luckily, Wubah has been learning from an early age how to bear that weight.
To become king in Ghana, one must have royal lineage, which he has on his maternal and paternal side. And, though he took the throne in his paternal lineage, his maternal grandfather prepared him as a potential king.
When Wubah was born in 1960, his mother returned with him to their home to find seven egrets on the property – a bird that wasn’t normally there. That, and other factors, he said, were an indication that he could one day ascend the throne.
Dr. Daniel Wubah talks about his role as a Ghanaian tribal king while serving as Millersville University's president.
“As a person of faith, I do believe that everybody’s life formula comes preordained,” he said. Wubah attends the Saint James Episcopal Church in Lancaster city.
Wubah’s trajectory to become king was never to interfere with his professional life, however.
“There was no doubt that even after I ascended the throne that I would continue my professional life,” he said.
While his uncle was still on the throne, Wubah earned a Bachelor of Science in botany from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. During his studies, political unrest resulted in monthslong closures of his university, motivating him to pursue further education in the U.S.
He traveled to the U.S. to earn his master’s degree in biology from the University of Akron and subsequently his doctorate in botany from the University of Georgia.
“There was a clear understanding when I was leaving Ghana that when the time comes, I will have to serve,” Wubah said. “This is not optional for me.”
And while at MU he has a contract that must be regularly renewed, but his role as king is for life.
“There’s no manual for what I’m doing,” Wubah said. “I’m a work in progress.”
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