Nana Kofi Acquah (L) James Apedor
Ghana's 59th Anniversary celebration was meant to be a momentous occasion but it turned out to be a disaster of humongous proportions.
Ghana was reduced to rags in the eyes of the world thanks to a horribly written piece-of-paperwork-with-pictures which was officially passed as Ghana's Anniversary brochure.
The mistakes in that paperwork were many- grammar, factual inaccuracies, geographical faux pas, historical blunders and many more. Even the host president, John Mahama had his position given away to his guest, Uhuru Kenyatta on a silver platter.
The brochure scandal is Ghana's new low; even lower than the embarrassing Brazil 2014 World Cup fiasco.
On Joy FM's Ghana Connect programme, Friday came the awful cries of Ghanaians from South Africa Aberdeen Scotland, Melton Keynes, UK, South Africa etc who had been left thoroughly embarrassed by the failed attempt by the state to produce a simple brochure to commemorate its 59th Anniversary.
Some of these Ghanaians who connected to the programme from abroad said they were busy promoting the good name of Ghana in their various places as part of the independence anniversary celebration only to be hit by the unforgivable blunders in the brochure which spread like wild fire on social media.
As the cries came, so too did the mocks. Evelyn, a journalist from Kenya, recounted how Ghana became the laughing stock among Kenyans.
Their president was only a guest at the Anniversary but left with a new title-President of Ghana.
Evelyn said the Kenyans had lots of fun at Ghana's expense with many of them wondering how such elementary errors could find their way in a brochure of an official state programme which took several months to prepare.
National mediocrity or leadership crisis
Connecting in the studio were Nana Kofi Acquah and James Apedor who situated the brochure scandal in two broad perspectives- National mediocrity and leadership crisis.
Kofi Acquah said for every mistake made in that brochure represented what has become of the new Ghanaian under a smiling president.
"We are people known for our mediocrity; if you employ a Ghanaian you are most probably hiring a thief. If the Ghanaian doesn't steal anything at all at work, he will steal your time by doing his private stuff," Nana Kofi Acquah said with passion.
He described the brochure as a "catastrophe", "one big disaster" which ought not to have happened and if it was allowed to, pretty heads must be made to roll, not the one-Acting Director of the Information Service Department Francis Kwarteng Arthur- who is being used as a scape goat.
James Apedor was also disenchanted by the horrible mistakes in the brochure but will not be quick to basterdize all Ghanaians. If anything, he believed leadership must be held to account for this blunder.
- See more at: http://www.myjoyonline.com/politics/2016/March-11th/voices-on-ghana-connect-messy-anniversary-brochure-and-ghanas-day-of-shame.php#sthash.ryvR1TN3.dpuf
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