The General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah says President Nana Akufo-Addo has caused Ghanaians an embarrassment with his plagiarised speech.
He therefore thinks that as a matter of urgency, the new President should take steps to rectify the speech through proper parliamentary procedures.
According to the NDC scribe, it is not enough to issue an apology wondering how a party which claims to be competent and can boast of the best intellectuals, lawyers, academicians could be accused of plagiarism.
President Akufo-Addo’s inaugural speech contained portions of statements previously made by former US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush and which were not duly acknowledged.
The speech has since attracted local and international ridicule with a montage of the two speeches by the US presidents and President Akufo-Addo circulated on social media.
Although a swift apology was issued by the Acting Head of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, Mr Nketiah believes it was not enough.
“If I should meet him personally I will tell him that he has disgraced the country”, Mr Asiedu Nketia stated on Accra-based Asempa FM.
He wondered why prominent lecturers were defending the President’s gaffe when they would not forgive their students who were found to have plagiarised.
To be forgiven for the blot, he said there was a need for the President’s secretary to issue an official communique to Parliament to the effect that those plagiarised portions be expunged from the speech.
“If you make a mistake in public, you don’t apologise in private , he stressed, adding that until the apology is captured and effected in the parliamentary Hansard, the blunder will remain a record.
He warned that the NDC will keep the government on its toes by constantly scrutinising its policies and decisions.
He recalled how the NPP criticised and asked him to apologise for wearing his wife’s winter coat during a visit to Germany with President John Dramani Mahama in 2013.
According to him some critics, mostly NPP supporters berated him for making Ghana a laughing stock in the international community.
He said although he wasn’t part of the government delegation at the time of the visit, he came under intense pressure to apologise to the people of Ghana for wearing feminine winter jacket which according to him was nobodys business.
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