News:
January 30, 2018
In compliance with the dictates of the 1992 constitution, for the second time within a week, Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye has been sworn in as acting President of the republic by the Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo at a brief ceremony in Parliament House last Saturday.
The swearing in was necessitated by the departure of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who will be away from January, 27-January, 31 to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the 2018 Ordinary African Union summit and then proceed From Ethiopia to South Africa, where he will attend the funeral of the late South African legendary trumpeter, Hugh Masakela who died last week.
The Chief Justice administered the oaths of allegiance and President to the Speaker amidst shouts of “yeah…yeah…Mr President, reshuffle!, reshuffle!! by the lawmakers.
The swearing in of the Speaker for the second time in a week however did not go without expressions of reservations by the lawmakers who ordinarily should have been in their constituencies attending to other equally important issues.
Ras Mubarak, Member of Parliament for Kumbungu disclosed his intention to go to the Supreme Court to seek a review of its earlier ruling on the matter, where two citizens challenged former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho who refused to repeat the oath any other time the President and the Vice President were out of the jurisdiction.
Managing Director of Accra base, City FM, Samuel Atta-Mensah, and a United States of America-based Ghanaian lawyer, Prof. Kwaku Asare, in 2015 filed a suit at the court, to among other reliefs, seek an interpretation of Article 60 (12) of the 1992 Constitution, which requires that the Speaker takes the oath of office each time he is to act as President.
The Court ruled that the Speaker must take the oath any other time.
Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor, on his part said the 1992 Constitution was silent on whether or not the acting President could hire and fire a government appointee, hence the need for clarity.
He also expressed concern about whether the President’s traveling to a funeral is of more importance to issues facing the development of the country.
Lawyer Dafeamekpor also raised about the economic cost of Parliament’s sitting on that Saturday for the swearing in ceremony to the national purse.
Article 60(11) of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that: “Where the President and the Vice-President are both unable to perform the functions of the President, the Speaker of Parliament shall perform those functions until the President or the Vice-President is able to perform those functions or a new President assumes office, as the case may be.”
By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com