'Prez must appoint Vice President now'

July 26, 2012 A former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Ayikoi Otoo, has advised President John Dramani Mahama to immediately appoint a Vice President to avoid lobbying and power wrangling. In accordance with Article 66 of the 1992 Constitution, the then Vice President Mahama was sworn into office by the Chief Justice Mrs Justice Georgina Theodora Wood, six hours after President Mills had given up the ghost at the 37 Military Hospital. “It will be in the interest of the nation for the President to, as matter of urgency, appoint his Vice President because the earlier he does that the better it will be for Ghana,” Mr Otoo stated in a telephone interview with graphic.com.gh. He said Article 60 (10) of the 1992 Constitution mandated the President to nominate his Vice upon assumption of office subject to approval from Parliament. According to Mr Otoo, the grey area in this provision was the absence of a stipulated time for the appointment of the Vice President because the manner in which the provision was couched did not give the President a time limit to do that. To tackle such lapse, he pointed out that it was good the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) suggested 14 days within which the President could appoint his Vice but maintained that such provision was not law yet and could, therefore, not be applied. He said it was unfortunate for Ghana to lose a sitting President, and thus wished the former First Lady and the late President’s family well in these sad moments. “We have all lost a President and we must mourn him befittingly,” the former Attorney-General said. The whole country and the international community were thrown into a state of shock and grief when the Chief of Staff, Mr Henry Martey Newman, released a press statement announcing the death of Prof. J.E.A. Mills on July 24, 2012. Prior to that social media had been inundated with questions on whether or not it was true Prof. Mills had passed on. Telephone lines jammed immediately his death was announced as Ghanaians from both home and abroad made frantic calls to find out the truth or otherwise of the death of Prof. Mills.