Mills Sworn In Today

President John Evans Atta Mills Another chapter will today be added to the political history of the country as the Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice Georgina Wood swears in a new president and his vice, at what is expected to be a colourful ceremony at the Independence Square in Accra.

Today's event is the culmination of cliff-hanger polls which went into a run-off on December 28.

As the country and the rest of world watched, Ghana came out of the electoral exercise unscathed after pockets of violence in some parts of the country.

The highpoint of today's event is the handing over of the baton of political authority by outgoing President John Agyekum Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to the incoming President-elect John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The development marks an important point in Ghana's history because for the second time in the country's 52-year-old post-independence era, an elected leader would hand over to another elected personality of a different political affiliation.

After staying in opposition for eight years and wresting power from an incumbent political party, Prof. Mills has registered a personal mark.

Draped in the national colours ahead of today's historic event, the venue for the investiture is all ready for the transition, as traders cash in with sales of the NDC paraphernalia.

It is interesting to note that a former President, John Rawlings handed over power to President John Agyekum Kufuor who is passing over the baton to a John Evans Atta Mills.

On the other hand an outgoing Vice President Aliu Mahama is handing over to an incoming Vice President John Mahama.

The maintenance of the Universal Adult Suffrage by today's feat has set Ghana apart from other countries where the coup mentality appears to refuse to give way to democracy.

In an interesting turn of events, leading members of the NDC have appealed to Ghanaians to give today's event a touch of nationalism, perhaps devoid of partisanship, as a way of tackling the cankerworm of polarization.

By A.R. Gomda