Special to USAfrica multimedia networks (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com • @USAfricaLIVE
In a rather unexpected twist, the great celebration and hopes of Ghanaians who welcomed Nana Akufo-Addo only a few hours ago as he took the oath of office during the swearing-in as elected President of the fourth Republic of Ghana, in Independence Square in the capital Accra, on January 7, 2017, has become circumscribed by the fog of theft of another President’s speech.
He was accused, factually, of plagiarising a portion of former president of the U.S George W. Bush’s 2001 inaugural speech.
At the time, the younger Bush said: “I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens building communities of service and a nation of character.”
Akufo-Addo’s almost verbatim lift of Bush’s speech: “I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens building your communities and our nation. Let us work until the work is done.”
Meanwhile, Eugene Arhin who is the press secretary to President Akufo-Addo has apologised for the plagiarised portions of the inaugural speech.
He said: “My attention has been drawn to references being made to a statement in the speech delivered by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at his swearing in on Saturday, January 7, 2017, which was not duly acknowledged. I unreservedly apologise for the non-acknowledgement of this quote to the original author. It was a complete oversight, and never deliberate. It is insightful to note that in the same speech were quotes from J.B Danquah, Dr. K.A. Busia, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Bible which were all duly attributed and acknowledged.”
Like Akufo-Addo, Nigeria’s leader Muhammadu Buhari in a September 2016 speech admitted through his aides to copying major parts of President Obama’s speech.
Evidently, the speech writers around west Africa love to copy Americana…. By Chido Nwangwu. @Chido247
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68DP3rtPS0c[/embedyt]
