A Historic Swearing In

On 7 January 2013, John Mahama took the oath of allegiance and became the fourth President of the fourth Republic of Ghana. Sounds historic, right? I mean if you are the fourth John to be the fourth president of the fourth Republic that must be of some historical importance. The ceremony was historic alright but not for the reasons I have just mentioned.

For starters, Mahama, who was being sworn in, is currently a respondent to a Petition currently before the Supreme Court of Ghana, which Petition is challenging his election as president. So you can imagine what was running through Mahama's mind as he repeated the oath of allegiance.

The uneasiness at the ceremony itself was self evident. And to crown it, the largest opposition party in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party, boycotted the event purely on the basis of principle: we cannot celebrate what we don't agree with. I agree with that.

Never mind what Mahama was thinking. Lol. What Ghanaians were thinking is what is important. I was thinking, and I believe many other Ghanaians were thinking along those lines too, that "assuming the Supreme Court invalidates Mahama's election and instead declares Nana Akufo-Addo validly elected, will Mahama accept the decision?"

I have no reason to doubt Mahama will respect the Supreme Court's decision in those circumstances. And I hope being the democrat he has been his entire political life he won't let me down. Scratch that, he won't let Ghanaians down.