President takes office (Front page).
The eyes of the world will today be fixed on Ghana as the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, swears in President John Dramani Mahama as the Fourth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.
President Mahama will become Ghana’s seventh democratically elected leader after independence and the second Vice-President, after the late President John Evans Atta Mills, to be elected President in the country’s nearly 56-year history.
The President-elect is also the fourth former parliamentarian to lead the country, after Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Prof K.A. Busia and Mr J.A. Kufuor.
Besides that, he also becomes the fourth person with the name John to lead the country since 1992.
The Vice-President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, will also be sworn-in. Amissah-Arthur becomes the fouth Vice-President of the Fourth Republic but the fifth Vice-President in the country's history.
Notwithstanding the decision of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to boycott the ceremony, in line with its challenge of the presidential election results, former President John Agyekum Kufuor will be among the many dignitaries, including former President J.J. Rawlings, the Founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to grace the occasion.
Apart from the Independent Square, the venue for the programme, which is already draped in the national colours, telephone and electricity poles and trees along the streets leading to the venue are also adorned in the national colours of red, gold and green.
The Independent Arch has not been left out of the national beautification exercise.
Already, neatly arranged chairs and stands covered with tarpaulin can be seen at the venue, while members of the security services have pitched camp there.
The President-elect will be sworn in by Mrs Justice Wood, to be witnessed by a host of Heads of State and Government from Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.
The Presidents of Senegal, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Togo and delegations from the United States have all confirmed their participation in the event, which is expected to attract the highest number of foreign leaders since 2005.
In 2005, seven African Presidents and a host of Heads of State and Government from Africa and across the globe attended the swearing-in ceremony of former President Kufuor.
In 2009, seven African Presidents, three Prime Ministers and two Vice-Presidents were at the swearing-in of the late President Mills, whose mantle the President elect took before being declared winner of the 2012 elections.
Apart from the world leaders, members of the Diplomatic Corps and other foreign dignitaries are expected to grace the occasion.
If previous inaugurations are anything to go by, then President Mahama’s swearing-in and inaugural speech will be witnessed by a huge crowd that has been building up before 5 a.m. at the Independence Square.
An estimated 50,000 Ghanaians will descend on the Independent Square singing, dancing and waving miniature flags to herald the swearing-in of the President-elect.
In the 2008 elections, President Mahama was the running mate of the late President Mills when the two ran a campaign on the message of change.
After the demise of President Mills last year, President Mahama replaced the man he described as his mentor and father as the flag bearer of the NDC for the 2012 elections.
After months of campaigning, President Mahama, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP and six others took their cases to the electorate in fiercely contested elections which President Mahama won by 50.70 per cent, followed by Nana Akufo-Addo with 47.74 per cent.
Becoming President on the heels of acrimonious campaigning and elections whose results are being contested in court, Mr Mahama is expected to use his inaugural speech to tell Ghanaians the direction of his Presidency over the next four years.
With the country sharply divided along partisan lines after the NPP’s refusal to accept the results it described as flawed, the President will pull all the unity strings to mass up the populace behind him.
President Mahama’s entry into Ghana politics started in 1996 when he was elected Member of Parliament for the Bole-Bamboi Constituency.
A year later, he was appointed a Deputy Minister of Communications in the Rawlings administration.
When the NDC lost the 2000 elections, the soft-spoken Mahama became the NDC’s Communications Director, while remaining a strong voice of the party in Parliament.
His role as MP, which spanned a period of 12 years, ended in 2008 when he was nominated as Prof Mills’s running mate for that year’s elections.
When the NDC won the elections in 2008, Mr Mahama became the Vice-President, a role he played until the demise of President Mills on July 24, 2012 when the mantle of leadership fell on his lap.
President Mahama will become Ghana’s seventh democratically elected leader after independence and the second Vice-President, after the late President John Evans Atta Mills, to be elected President in the country’s nearly 56-year history.
The President-elect is also the fourth former parliamentarian to lead the country, after Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Prof K.A. Busia and Mr J.A. Kufuor.
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| President Mahama swearing the oath of office |
Besides that, he also becomes the fourth person with the name John to lead the country since 1992.
The Vice-President, Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, will also be sworn-in. Amissah-Arthur becomes the fouth Vice-President of the Fourth Republic but the fifth Vice-President in the country's history.
Notwithstanding the decision of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to boycott the ceremony, in line with its challenge of the presidential election results, former President John Agyekum Kufuor will be among the many dignitaries, including former President J.J. Rawlings, the Founder of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to grace the occasion.
Apart from the Independent Square, the venue for the programme, which is already draped in the national colours, telephone and electricity poles and trees along the streets leading to the venue are also adorned in the national colours of red, gold and green.
The Independent Arch has not been left out of the national beautification exercise.
Already, neatly arranged chairs and stands covered with tarpaulin can be seen at the venue, while members of the security services have pitched camp there.
The President-elect will be sworn in by Mrs Justice Wood, to be witnessed by a host of Heads of State and Government from Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea.
The Presidents of Senegal, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Zambia, Togo and delegations from the United States have all confirmed their participation in the event, which is expected to attract the highest number of foreign leaders since 2005.
In 2005, seven African Presidents and a host of Heads of State and Government from Africa and across the globe attended the swearing-in ceremony of former President Kufuor.
In 2009, seven African Presidents, three Prime Ministers and two Vice-Presidents were at the swearing-in of the late President Mills, whose mantle the President elect took before being declared winner of the 2012 elections.
Apart from the world leaders, members of the Diplomatic Corps and other foreign dignitaries are expected to grace the occasion.
If previous inaugurations are anything to go by, then President Mahama’s swearing-in and inaugural speech will be witnessed by a huge crowd that has been building up before 5 a.m. at the Independence Square.
An estimated 50,000 Ghanaians will descend on the Independent Square singing, dancing and waving miniature flags to herald the swearing-in of the President-elect.
In the 2008 elections, President Mahama was the running mate of the late President Mills when the two ran a campaign on the message of change.
After the demise of President Mills last year, President Mahama replaced the man he described as his mentor and father as the flag bearer of the NDC for the 2012 elections.
After months of campaigning, President Mahama, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the NPP and six others took their cases to the electorate in fiercely contested elections which President Mahama won by 50.70 per cent, followed by Nana Akufo-Addo with 47.74 per cent.
Becoming President on the heels of acrimonious campaigning and elections whose results are being contested in court, Mr Mahama is expected to use his inaugural speech to tell Ghanaians the direction of his Presidency over the next four years.
With the country sharply divided along partisan lines after the NPP’s refusal to accept the results it described as flawed, the President will pull all the unity strings to mass up the populace behind him.
President Mahama’s entry into Ghana politics started in 1996 when he was elected Member of Parliament for the Bole-Bamboi Constituency.
A year later, he was appointed a Deputy Minister of Communications in the Rawlings administration.
When the NDC lost the 2000 elections, the soft-spoken Mahama became the NDC’s Communications Director, while remaining a strong voice of the party in Parliament.
His role as MP, which spanned a period of 12 years, ended in 2008 when he was nominated as Prof Mills’s running mate for that year’s elections.
When the NDC won the elections in 2008, Mr Mahama became the Vice-President, a role he played until the demise of President Mills on July 24, 2012 when the mantle of leadership fell on his lap.
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