Speaker sworn in as acting President

THE Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, was at 2:40 p.m. yesterday sworn in as the acting President of the Republic.
She took the oath of office and allegiance before an emergency sitting of Parliament, which was administered by the Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Theodora Georgina Wood.
The emergency sitting of Parliament became necessary because President J.E.A. Mills and his Vice had both left the country for Japan and Nigeria respectively.
According to Article 60 (11) of the Constitution, “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 or a new President assumes office, as the case may be”.
Article 60 (12) says that the Speaker shall, before commencing to perform the function of the President under clause (11) of this Article, take and subscribe to the oath set out in relation to the office of President”.
Before leaving the Speaker’s seat for the First Deputy Speaker to take over, the Speaker told the House that President Mills informed her through writing dated September 13, 2010 that he would be away from the country to Japan from September 27 to October 3, 2010.
The Speaker added that on Thursday, she received another communication dated September 29, 2010, from the Vice President informing her about his return trip to Nigeria on the same day, Friday.
“It is for this reason that I recalled Parliament. We are here because the Constitution says that the Speaker should act, even if it is for an hour or a minute,” she told the house.
She described her assumption as the acting President as an honour and respect the nation accorded the entire House.
After the house had resumed after it had adjourned for two minutes to allow the acting President and the Chief Justice to leave the floor, the Minority Chief Whip, who was also acting as the Minority Leader, congratulated the acting President.
He, however, expressed worry about the penchant of the government in delaying to inform the Speaker of Parliament whenever both the President and the Vice President were leaving the country.
He cited an incident on June 25, this year, when both the President and the Vice President were out of the country, but the Speaker was not even aware, contrary to the tenets of the Constitution.
Mr Opare-Ansah added that the government was always aware of its schedules and should, therefore, inform the Speaker of Parliament in time, “to avoid the country finding itself in a quagmire in future”.
Mr Doe Adjaho, the First Deputy Speaker, who was also acting as the Speaker, associated himself with the comment by the Mr Opare-Ansah and urged the government to always endeavour to inform the Speaker in time “ in order not to put unnecessary pressure on the House”.
He congratulated the acting President on always being first in many positions, including the first female Director of Public Prosecution, first woman to rise to the Supreme Court, the first female Speaker of Parliament and now, the first female acting President.
The Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, congratulated the acting President on her new position and added that this was also a demonstration that Ghana was consolidating its democracy.
“No matter the time, she is in-charge. She should be seen to be taking decisions as such. I want her to look at the plight of the Ghanaian and the MPs,” he said amidst shouts of ”reshuffle, reshuffle” from the House.