“I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects; responsible citizens building your communities and our nation.” – George Bush, 2000 and Nana Addo 2017
“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 came before us.”- Bill Clinton, 92 and Nana Addo, 2017
Despite attempts by key members and sympathisers of the NPP to defend portions of President Nana Addo’s speech sited for plagiarism, I want to point out that it was a huge mistake and tantamount to intellectual dishonesty.
Plagiarism is neither a criminal offence nor a civil offence but deemed illegal and unethical. The man who wrote the speech or played a part in putting it together, Eugene Arhin has come out to render an apology.
Ordinarily it should have ended as such but our politics is such that accepting your mistakes is not enough so long as your opponent have not ridiculed you to their fill. Being bold to admit that he erred is honourable and admirable- I respect him for that.
Left for me, it should have ended there because the speech is class even without the plagiarised sentences.
The truth is that the NPP is getting exactly what they gave to the NDC without ever making allowance for human errors over the past 8 years. Every mistake was deemed a sign of incompetence and broadcasted enough for the whole world to hear.
This is how opposition parties in our part of the world are reduced to, being negative, bringing down those in power and inciting the populace against those at the helm
It is a backward mentality and I was hoping that the NDC will try to teach the NPP how opposition should behave. Unfortunately, even though they were against the way the NPP treated them, they have decided to do same because in Ghana politics, the best thing to do to come back to power is to undermine those in power.
I however believe that the NDC cannot afford to be that kind of opposition given the injuries done their credibility. The party needs a new image and going the NPP way in opposition will not help them in anyway. (More on that in future)
Back to the plagiarism issue
BBC, Aljazeera, CNN and a host of international media houses reported it because it is that big a big an issue, shameful and should have been avoided. Our handing over was viewed all over the world. When you use someone’s intellectual property, it is honourable to give credit to the originator. But oversight is a sin we all commit
This is why I was impressed with Eugene Arhin for moving swiftly to render an apology to that effect
The 70 year rule being used in defence by some sympathisers of the NPP is very shameful and even worse the attempt by others to equalise it with similar wrongs of the NDC.
There is no honour in stealing and finding a way out with technicalities. Plagiarism is equal to stealing. If a class one kid is punished for copying, more originality is expected from state actors. All they needed to do was to give credit to the originator
The best and most honourable explanation is the one given by Mr Arhin- oversight
It is not common in our politics for people to accept their mistakes this fast and render an apology.
This should be the way those given the mandate of the people should deal with us; they are humans as we are and prone to making mistakes like we all do. We are not expecting them to be perfect.
Those calling for the heard of Eugene Arhin should chill, the young man contributed to writing one of the best speeches in the history of this nation. He made what we all do – mistake- and did what most of us don’t do so well – apologised.
Those calling for his head should look themselves in the mirror and see how perfect they are.
Nana’s speech should go down as a brilliant one even without the plagiarised content. It is a masterpiece in its’ own right.
Two errors should never dominate the good work done.
It is part of our politics to make governments in power suffer. We must however not lose sight of the fact that the nation suffers the more when the government of the day is made to suffer. We need a progressive and patriotic mentality in our politics
Don’t stop holding the government of the day accountable because your party is in power and don’t pray and contribute to their fall because you didn’t vote for them
This is the position of nation wreckers and I doubt you will be proud to be tagged as such.
In conclusion, I will suggest that we take a look at the period of transition from elections
The period between 10th December and 7th January given for handing over is too short and will result in such errors if not looked at. Both the outgoing and incoming government have too much to do in a short time that mistakes will always be inevitable.
Handing over and changing residence in our month is not an easy task.
We can’t avoid mistakes of this nature if we don’t give people enough time to work.
This is however a good omen for our new president and his handlers- critical people are watching and waiting to pounce on every mistake. Due diligence must be the guiding principle
Eugene Arhin has also set a good example; when you make a mistake, accept it, apologise and move on. This is how we want to be governed as citizens
Isaac Kyei Andoh
[email protected]
We need The less than a month given to parties to change power will ensure that such mistakes are repeated
This is an almost 6 paged speech, one of the very best in Ghana’s history. We shouldn’t deprive this young man his deserving credit because of a mistake