Mills Takes Office Today • As 3rd President Of The 4th Republic

President- elect Prof. J. E. A. Mills — To be sworn in today

Thousand of  Ghanaians and other nationals will sit through another moment of Ghanaian history at the Independence Square in Accra today, January 7, 2009 as Professor John Evans Atta Mills is sworn in as the third President of the Fourth Republic.

Millions more across the country will watch the ceremony on television from about 11 a.m. when the programme is expected to start.

It will see President John Agyekum Kufuor handing over the sword of office to Prof. Mills.  Mr John Dramani Mahama will also be sworn in as Vice-President.

The inauguration ceremony, which takes place after the general election every four years, is a constitutional requirement which has to take place before an individual elected to the highest office of the land assumes duty as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces.

As part of the ceremony, Prof. Mills will swear the Presidential Oath, which reads: “I, John Evans Atta Mills, having been elected to the high office of President of the Republic of Ghana, do (in the name of the Almighty God swear) (solemnly affirm) that I will be faithful and true to the Republic of Ghana; that I will at all times preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana; and that I dedicate myself to the service and well-being of the people of the Republic of Ghana and to do right to all manner of  persons.

“I  further (solemnly swear) (solemnly affirm) that should I at any time break this oath of office, I shall submit myself to the laws of the Republic of Ghana and suffer the penalty for it. (So help me God).”

The oath will be administered by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, in the presence of a new Parliament and its new Speaker.

In addition to the incoming President and the immediate past President who will be the centre of attraction tomorrow, other very important personalities (VIPs) expected to be at the ceremony include former President J.  J. Rawlings and some Heads of State from the ECOWAS sub-region.

A visit by the Daily Graphic to the Independence Square   at about 9.35 a.m. yesterday indicated that preparations were underway to get the place ready for the national event.

Present at the time of the visit were some police officers, staff of the State Protocol Department, the Information Services Department (ISD) and a private company, Silicon House Production, which has been contracted to liaise with the ISD to provide quality sound at the programme.

At the grounds were 73 canopies being arranged to accommodate more than 5,000 invited guests. An unspecified number of well wishers, mostly from among the general public, will be guided to find seats under the permanent structures at the Independence Square.

In an interview at the Independence Square, the Officer in charge of the Works Branch of State Protocol, Madam Juliana Nuwoame, was emphatic that all would be ready by midnight yesterday, "else we will have to spend the night here to finish everything for the programme tomorrow".

She said to avoid a situation where some VIPs and invited guests might lose their seats to the general public, the seats had been demarcated to accommodate specific people at specific areas.

For his part, the Second-in-Command of Police Operations in the Accra Police Region, Supt Aboagye Sarpong, who was on the grounds to assess the situation, said there had been a series of meetings by personnel of National Security to put in place adequate security measures for the event. 

Story by Lucy Adoma Yeboah