Prof Oquaye Acts as President Again, Till Jan 31

The Reverend Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament, was on Saturday morning sworn into office as the Acting President of Ghana.

He took the Oath of Allegiance and Presidential Oath administered by Chief Justice Sophia Akufo at the Parliament House, Accra.

The Speaker would act as President until January 31.

This is the second time the Speaker would act as President in a week, following the absence of both President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Mahamadu Bawumia out of the country.

President Akufo-Addo leaves Ghana for Ethiopia to attend the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the funeral of the late South African Jazz music legend, Hugh Masakela, while the Vice President is in the United Kingdom on a medical leave.

Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, chaired proceedings.

Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu commended the Speaker on the assumption of the high office but, quoting a section of the Oaths Act of 1972, queried the legality of why the Speaker, who had taken the same oath last Sunday, had to repeat the oaths again.

He further indicated that the phraseology of the Presidential Oath said that the President was elected, and noted the difficulty in saying the Oath since the Speaker was not elected but had to assume the position in the absence of the first two gentlemen of the land.

Mr Iddrisu suggested that there should be an amendment of the schedule of the Oath.

Furthermore, he said the Speaker had by both being Speaker and Acting President, become an epitome of the fusion of the Executive and the Legislature.

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu, agreed with the Minority Leader for aspects of the 1992 Constitution dealing with the absence of the President and the Vice to be relooked to address controversies surrounding the filling of position in the absence of the President and the Vice.

Source: GNA