Mills outlaws Kufuor’s national award

Former President J.A. Kufuor It is a matter of fact that the exclusive national honours class of the Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana available only to presidents, is both inappropriate and discriminatory. President J.E.A. Mills President John Evans Atta Mills has repealed the newest national award category of the Grand Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana, instituted in July of 2008 by former President John Agyekum Kufuor, exclusively for presidents of the Republic of Ghana. President Mills who announced the repeal in his State of the Nation address to Parliament on Thursday, said the award category is both inappropriate and discriminatory. It is to be replaced with the original national honours warrant executed on the first of July 1960. “It is a matter of fact that the exclusive national honours class of the Order of the Star and Eagles of Ghana available only to presidents, is both inappropriate and discriminatory. I have therefore decided to repeal the instrument which introduced this class and replace it with the original national honours warrant executed on the first of July 1960 by the founder of our nation. “I believe however that any persons who received those honours under the 2008 instrument acquired vested rights and therefore will not be required to return them,” he told the house. Former President J.A. Kufuor on July 3, 2008, institutionalized the Order of the Star and Eagles as the highest order of the nation to be conferred on the president on successful completion of a term of office by the Chief Justice. Every new president was to be given the colour of the order as he or she is sworn into office, to be worn on all formal national occasions. Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana