Mahama inaugurated
President John Dramani Mahama has been sworn into office as the fourth President of the Fourth Republic of Ghana.
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The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, has also been sworn into office as the Vice-President.
President Mahama took the presidential oath and the oath of allegiance, while Vice-President Amissah-Arthur took the oath of the Vice-President and the oath of allegiance.
The oaths were administered by the Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and witnessed by a massive crowd at the Independence Square in Accra.
The splendid ceremony was attended by 13 Heads of State and 18 government representatives from across the world.
In
attendance were, former presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum
Kufuor. Former President Rawlings was accompanied by his wife, Nana
Konadu
Agyemang.
President Mahama was declared winner of the December 7, 2012 presidential election by the Electoral Commission after securing 50.7 per cent of the votes cast. This will be his first term as President (2013-2017) despite serving the remaining five months of the late President John Atta Mills.
He ascended to the throne of presidency after the demise of President John Evans Atta Mills on July 24, 2012. President Mahama had previously served as the Vice-President.
The President is also the fourth former parliamentarian to lead the country, after Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Prof K.A. Busia and Mr J.A. Kufuor. Besides, he also became the fourth person with the name John to lead the country since 1992.
Wearing an immaculate white flowing boubou, (a native dress), President Mahama arrived at the Independence Square to rousing cheers from the capacity crowd.
He mounted the podium, cast in the shape of the black star and adorned with the national colours of red, yellow and green.
The occasion also afforded Ghanaians the opportunity to exhibit their rich traditional cloths and dresses.
At exactly 10 am amidst loud cheers from the huge crowd that had gathered at the square, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho called the House to order for proceedings to begin.
The Vice-President, Mr Amissah-Arthur was the first to take the oath of allegiance and vice-presidential oath.
When it was the turn of President Mahama, who had been a three-time Member of Parliament for Bole-Bamboi to take and subscribe to the oath of allegiance and the presidential oath, there was a spontaneous and thunderous applause as people sang songs such as “Abamu ewie” and “Daanase” while waving miniature Ghana flags to acknowledge him.
The composed President Mahama walked majestically from the dais in the company of the Chief Justice to the arena where the brief but impressive ceremony took place.
Before the President signed the oath book, the Army Band played the National Anthem after which a 21 gun salute reverberated in the background. The moment of joy came when the President took the State sword.
Beaming with smiles, the President turned in four directions, indicating the North, South East and West and showed the sword to those present, a gesture which received loud cheers.
Before he took his Presidential Chair, President Mahama raised his hands into the skies most propably to acknowledge God for the good work he had done.
All the visiting heads of state and the two former presidents, J.J Rawlings and J.A Kufuor took turns to congratulate President Mahama.
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After all was done and the national anthem played signaling the end of proceedings, bouyed President Mahama could not hide his excitement at the sight of the milling crowd who were cheering, he mounted the ceremonial open-top state vehicle to respond to the cheers.
As usual, the technology oriented President who is fond of reading from ipad once again gave his maiden speech from an ipad.
Being ICT savvy, President Mahama used a teleprompter to deliver the State of the Nation address to Parliament.
Story byTimothy Gobah