John Dramani Mahama, on Tuesday, took oath of office as Ghana’s new president in a ceremony attended by world leaders.
The 66-year-old new president, wearing the West African country’s national dress, was sworn-in in Accra, the Ghanaian capital.
Among those present were President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria, Senegal’s Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Burkina Faso’s leader, Ibrahim Traore, Kenyan President William Ruto, President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon’s Brice Oligui Nguema.
Presidents Julius Maada Bio of Sierra Leone and Mamadi Doumbouya of Guinea as well as former leaders and officials also attended the inauguration.
Former Nigerian Presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan were also in attendance.
Mahama took over from Nana Akufo-Ado who succeeded him in 2017.
Mahama held a Bible as he took the oath of office.
Before his swearing-in, Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang was inaugurated as the country’s first female vice president.
The Chief Justice of Ghana, Gertrude Torkornoo, administered the oath of office.
“Today should mark the opportunity to reset our country,” Mahama told a jubilant crowd decked in the green, red, black, and white hues of his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.
Mahama won the election held in December, returning to the post he left seven years ago with a mission to revive Ghana’s ailing economy.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate polled 50 per cent of the votes to defeat the then vice president Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling party.
He scored 6.3 million votes to defeat Bawumia with a 1.7 million vote margin. Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had immediately conceded defeat in the election.
Mahama had ruled Ghana between 2012 and early 2017. He had previously failed twice to win back the presidency but in December’s election managed to tap into expectations of change among Ghanaians.
