Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, during a statement at an NDC event in Tamale, rejected the assertion that no president of Ghana in the 4th Republic has wielded the presidential sword three times (i.e. has been sworn into office three times).
According to him, Jerry John Rawlings was sworn into office with the state sword three times, and the presidential candidate of the NDC for the 2024 elections, John Dramani Mahama, will be the second person to achieve this feat.
"Maybe they haven't learned the history properly. Because President Rawlings was sworn to the nation three times. First, as a chairman of AFRC, second as the chairman of PNDC and third as the elected president of the Republic of Ghana.
"President Mahama is going to be the second president to swear to this nation for the third time before he leaves. He has already sworn twice; he swore as president after the unfortunate demise of President Atta Mills.
"The second time when he was elected as president of the Republic. And January 7, 2025, he is going to conclude the history-making of this country, for he is going to swear with the state sword for the third time as the president of the Republic of Ghana," he said.
Reacting to this on his Good Evening Ghana programme on Thursday, May 18, 2023, Paul Adom-Otchere said that the NDC national chairman's claim was totally wrong.
He explained that the late former president was not sworn into office with the state sword when he came to power through military overtures.
"I going to explain to Johnson Asiedu Nketiah something very simple… the sword of state is not given to people who overthrow governments by coup d'état – they don't even find it (the sword of state).
"Because the event where the sword of state is given to the person who won the election is a meeting of parliament… the coup people, when they come, parliament is the first thing they cancel. So, you can not swear them in, in parliament, before parliament.
"So, this thing you said is not correct; it is not good. J.J. Rawlings did not take the sword in 79 and 81 (when he came to power through coups)," he said.
Watch Paul Adom Otchere' s remarks and that of Asiedu Nketiah in the video below:
Meanwhile, watch the latest episode of #SayItLoud on GhanaWeb TV below:
Broadcaster Paul Adom-Otchere (left), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah (right)