John Mahama sworn in as president of Ghana, promises to ‘reset’ country | Politics News

With about 20 African leaders in attendance, the 66-year-old will be sworn in as Ghana’s president for the third time.

John Mahama was sworn in for a second term as Ghana’s president at a ceremony in the capital Accra, attended by about 20 African leaders.

Mahama won 56 percent of the vote in the Dec. 9 national presidential election, defeating the ruling party’s candidate and vice president, Mahamuda Bawumia, who won 41 percent.

Mahama takes over from outgoing President Nana Akufo-Addo, who served two terms.

“Today should mark an opportunity to reset our country,” the 66-year-old new president, dressed in the West African country’s national costume, told a jubilant crowd decked out in the green, red, black and white hues of his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party at Tuesday.

Energy radiated from Accra’s Black Star Square, as a sea of ​​elated faces waved Ghanaian and NDC flags, sang and spontaneously danced to the beat of drums and vuvuzelas.

Among those present were Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senegal’s Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Burkina Faso’s leader Ibrahim Traore, Kenya’s President William Ruto, Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Gabon’s Brice Oligui Nguema.

Mahama, 66, was sworn in alongside Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, the first woman to become Ghana’s vice president.

Mahama’s return to the presidency ends eight years in power for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose last term was marked by Ghana’s worst economic turmoil in years, an International Monetary Fund bailout and debt default.

Mahama, who led Ghana from 2012 to early 2017, had previously failed to return to the presidency twice. But in the December elections, he managed to capitalize on expectations of change among Ghanaians.

On the Black Star Square, the supporters of the elected leader exuded joy, hope and optimism.

“I have never been so proud to be Ghanaian,” Akosua Nyarko, 28, a teacher from the southern city of Cape Coast, told the AFP news agency. “There is incredible energy here… This is the dawn of a new era!”

Mohammed Abubakar, a 50-year-old farmer from Tamale in northern Ghana, said he was confident Mahama would prioritize rural development.

“Coming here in Accra for this historic event is a dream come true,” said the farmer, adding that Mahama’s “leadership gives me hope that my children will have a better future”.

A writer and devotee of Afrobeat music, Mahama wrote in his memoirs – My First Coup d’Etat, And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa – that he was changed by his childhood experiences during the 1966 military coup.

He was born in northern Ghana as a privileged child, and his house is the only one in the village with a diesel generator.

His father, who was a junior minister in the government, was briefly detained and interrogated by the leaders of the 1966 coup, but later released unharmed.

Mahama was also a Member of Parliament and Chairman of the West African Caucus in the Pan-African Parliament in Pretoria.

With a history of political stability, Ghana’s two main parties, the ruling NPP and the NDC, have alternated equally in power since the return to multi-party democracy in 1992.

The country of 33 million people is Africa’s largest gold exporter and the world’s second largest cocoa producer.