Presidential spokesman, Mr. Andrew Awuni says the Grand Order of the Stars and Eagles of Ghana, instituted yesterday by President Kufuor as the nation’s highest honour exclusively for Presidents of the Republic, is not a mere coronation. It is a symbol of office the president created to be used by sitting presidents, and corrects a long-standing anomaly that had existed with the nation’s governance. Andrew Awuni told Kwaku Sakyi Addo on Joy FM’s Front Page programme that the high office of president has no symbol of office apart from the sword of office which is regularly under lock, and at important public functions, the president is literally ‘naked’, unlike leaders of professional bodies who have symbols of office to identify them. “The Grand Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana is not just an award, please, it is not just an award to be given to somebody, it comes to compliment the sword of office that our presidents always pick up. You can call it the sceptre of office that the presidents pick up to swear the oath. There must be a symbol of office apart from the sword that is always under lock and key, that’s why I give this example about all these professional associations with a symbol of office that they always wear, when they are presiding over very important occasions of the associations that they are running. So the Grand Order of the Star and of Eagles is not just an award, it’s a symbol of office that has been missing in our governance. What President Kufuor has done is to institute this new award, this new Order that will come will compliment the sword at every swearing in ceremony of a legitimate president …so that on occasions such as 6th March, and all these other big occasions as we see all over the world, the president will have a symbol of office on him.” He said if President Kufuor leaves office at the end of his term, he would be given a replica of it to be taken home as a memento of the office he held, unlike in the past when all that the former presidents had to show were photographs of their coronation. “It’s not something to say ok thank you for being president, it is also a symbol of office,…now his granddaughters, his great grandchildren, his great, great grandchildren can now come and say that oh this is what shows that our grandfather came through this office.” Responding to claims that the number of people who were honoured was too many, Andrew Awuni said there are many in the society who deserve national honours, however an error of neglecting to honour deserving people in the society has ensured that they never got the recognition. He said for instance, Mr. K.B. Asante, retired diploma and long time public servant, has become a reference point for historical occasions, playing key roles all these but never as much as acknowledged. “There is a certain anomaly, an error that error cannot be the standard, the error of the past cannot be the standard and therefore all this award thing is corrected. So let’s be sober and try and understand it. I cannot understand why a man serves a government for 19 solid years and has nothing to show for it? Yesterday I gave the example of Dr. Kwesi Botchwey who became our Finance Minister for 13 solid years. In fact in some of the most difficult periods of our time and he just walks away? What does he have to show for it?” Asked if President Kufuor nominated Kwesi Botchwey for an award, Andrew Awuni said no, explaining that maybe the numbers may have been too many. "This kind of error must be seen as an error…I heard Nana Ato Dadzie, former Chief of Staff, he served the government for 19 years, …he is not awarded? That’s an error, it cannot be a standard to copy. So let’s stop this and let’s understand that when people perform, when people play their roles, make their contributions we need to recognize it and this is standard and I think that this is worthy of emulation, not of condemnation." Author: Isaac Yeboah