Non-acknowledgement of quote was an oversight – Eugene Arhin

The Director of Communication for the President Nana Akuffo-Addo has apologised for failing to reference a statement in the inaugural speech delivered by the president at the swearing in on January 7, 2017.

In a Facebook post Eugene Arhin said it was an oversight.
“I unreservedly apologise for the non-acknowledgement of this quote to the original author. It was a complete oversight, and never deliberate.”

“It is insightful to note that in the same speech were quotes from Dr. J.B Danquah, Dr. K.A. Busia, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the Bible which were all duly attributed and acknowledged.”

A paragraph in Nana Akufo-Addo’s inaugural speech at the Independence Square was lifted verbatim from a speech former US president George Bush delivered at his inaugural address in 2001.

“I ask you to be citizens. Citizens, not spectators. Citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens, building communities of service and a nation of character,” Bush said on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001.

Akufo-Addo told a roaring crowd at the Independence Square that: “The change can and should start now. I urge you to be citizens, not spectators; citizens, not subjects. Responsible citizens building our communities and our nation. Let us work until the work is done.”

National Democratic Congress activist Stephen Kwabena Attuh was among the first to point out the seeming similarities between the two speeches by sharing Bush’s 2001 inaugural address in 2001.