Ghana’s new president, Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has received a lot of flaks for plagiarizing parts of inaugural speeches delivered by two former US presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton in his speech at his official inauguration on Saturday January 7 in the capital city, Accra.
In that speech president Akufo-Addo said “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”.
But those phrases were used by former US president George W. Bush at his inauguration in 2001.
Again the Ghanaian president said “Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Ghanaians have been a restless, questing, hopeful people. And we must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us”.
But those words were copied from the 1993 inauguration speech by former president Bill Clinton. President Clinton said in that speech that “Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. And Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people. We must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who come before us.”
Ghana’s President Nana Addo caught in inauguration plagiarism pic.twitter.com/k7KZWGlEml
— Adeola Fayehun (@AdeolaFayehun) January 8, 2017
The plagiarism scandal has generated a lot of debate among Ghanaians on traditional and social media with some ridiculing the new president’s speech writers.
Is it too late for president Nana Akufo-Addo to address the people of #Ghana again but this time in his own words? #ghanainauguration
— Sophie Ikenye (@sikenye) January 8, 2017
Plagiarism at its peak!
Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo copied Bill Clinton’s Presidential inauguration speech of 1993. pic.twitter.com/O9XgatbPJn
— Wale Adetona (@iSlimfit) January 8, 2017
The new president’s director of communication who is believed to have authored the speech has apologized for the scandal.
Eugene Arhin issued a statement on facebook saying “I unreservedly apologise for the non-acknowledgement of this quote to the original author. It was a complete oversight, and never deliberate”.
Source: Africafeeds.com
