Ghana’s newly sworn in President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has apologized for plagiarizing the speeches of two former American Presidents.
Akufo-Addo, had during his inaugural speech on Saturday used lines that were purportedly lifted from two separated speeches by ex-president Bill Clinton and his successor, George Bush.
Video clips of the plagiarized speech quickly went viral on the social media.
The plagiarized part of the speech delivered by Akufo-Addo read: “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”.
Analysts say the only difference between this part of the Ghanaian president’s speech and the one delivered by Bill Clinton during his inaugural speech was the replacement of ‘Americans’ with ‘Ghanaians’.
Another portion of Akufo-Addo’s speech read, “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”.
This was later found to be lifted from George Bush’s 2001 inaugural speech.
However Eugene Arhin, the president’s communication director, later issued an “unreserved” apology “for the non-acknowledgement of this quote to the original author. It was a complete oversight, and never deliberate.”
Unconfirmed reports say the aide that was responsible for writing Akufo-Addo’s speech was subsequently removed, but there is no concrete evidence supporting this report.
A similar incident had occurred in Nigeria after President Muhammadu Buhari was also accused of plagiarizing the one of the speeches delivered by President Barack Obama.
President Buhari delivered the speech during the launch of the “Change Begins With Me” reorientation campaign.
The Presidency later apologized for the error and said that the staff that wrote the speech would be redeployed out of the state house. Nobody knows whether this has been done.
Recall that the wife of the current president-elect of the United States of America, Melania Trum, was also involved in a plagiarism scandal after she lifted words from a speech from current US First Lady, Michelle Obama.