The first weekend of the year for Ghanaians was enthusiastically hyperbolic from a political standpoint. The new President’s inauguration speech sparked a bonfire of comments as a result of plagiarized quotes from former American Presidents speeches.
I am just impressed that many Ghanaians know the other word for “copy”.
Saturday 7th January 2017 was a bright day of hope for all who had supported the New Patrotic Party (NPP) towards victory in the recent presidential elections. Nana Akufo-Addo was inaugurated as President of Ghana amidst Ghanaians and guests from far and wide.
Unknown to many Ghanaians, the eve of the Presidential inauguration saw the creation of the National Plagiarism Council (NPC) as well.
(Imagine an evil laugh here)
The NPC, eager to get to work and showcase their relevance in society, took it upon themselves to scrutinize the Presidents inauguration speech.
The inauguration was a photographers dream. The venue was dazzled with decor and fashion that at a point, I was confused as to whether it was an inauguration ceremony or fashion week.
In the same vein the NPC also did not play with their plagiarism game and were adamant in making a statement to rival the social media tidal waves of fashion and even Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings snub of MP Oko Vanderpuye.
From a technical view point, parts of the speech were plagiarized. We are however talking about two sentences that were not major points.
Are we over exaggerating an error of two sentences?
Yes, Oui, Yebo, and any other way of saying yes.
Are you kidding me? We make it sound as if the President stole gold when all he stole was a cookie from his own mother’s kitchen.
Those blowing this error out of proportion should get off their high horses. I am however not surprised with this reaction as Police and security personnel in Ghana sometimes over exaggerate minor offences and react as if they are dealing with repeat criminals. From the look of the comments on social media, I guess that behavior cuts across to other professions as well.
I would however like to thank all who pointed out the error and also point out that though unacceptable; it’s not a big deal and will do little to dent the hope the nation has in the current administration.
I just hope this attitude towards scrutiny will be applied to all things in Ghana. By this I am referring to corruption, professionalism in public offices and moral issues.
Lets all remember that we make mistakes. Lets learn from them and try not to judge others. You never know but with roles reversed, we may do even worse than those we are judging.
Lets keep it One HONDRED and remember to work together as Ghanaians to make Ghana a better place for all.
Great writing skills loving it keep the good work up … besides no idea is original so I don’t see the reason why Ghanaian’s are acting this way towards the speech and don’t we always quote from the Bible come on we need a change of mind as well …
Thanks Lee. Truth be told un the academic arena this is a big deal. I personally feel it is over exaggerated and not intentional but anyways what do I know I ain’t a professor lol