The new President of Ghana, Mr. Nana Ado Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has apologised for plagiarising portions of the inaugural speech.

The new president delivered the speech on Saturday at his investiture ceremony at the Black Stars Square in Accra.

The unfortunate news about the plagiarised portions of the speech went viral on social media shortly after Nana Addo had finished delivering his address.

He was accused of plagiarising US former President George Walker Bush’s 2001 as well as portion of former President Bill Clinton’s inaugural speeches.

Some radio stations in a bid to check the authenticity of the allegation played both speeches and compared it to that of President Nana Akufo Addo and it was realised that plagiarism could not be ruled out.

However, Mr Eugene Arhin, in a statement released Saturday evening, indicated that the lack of attribution was a complete oversight.

According to APA, the spokesman said: “My attention has been drawn to references being made to a statement in the speech delivered by the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at his swearing in on Saturday, January 7, 2017, which was not duly acknowledged”.

The situation has caused great embarrassment to the new ruling New Patriotic government.

Ghana’s new president, kicked off an embarrassing plagiarism scandal, just minutes after he was sworn in.

Part of his inaugural speech, where he promised honesty of purpose and reduced taxation, among other things, was found to have been lifted from the 1993 inaugural speech of former US President Bill Clinton.

He was also caught red handed in lifting a portion of the speech by another US president John F. Kennedy made in 1961.

On 20th January, 1961 President J. F. Kennedy during his inaugural address said, “if a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it can’t save the few who are rich”.

Akufo-Addo in his inaugural speech said the same thing on Saturday.

The speech writers of the new Ghanaian president appear to be in love with the rhetorics of American leaders as they also lifted Former President George Bush.

According to Ghanaweb.Com, President Akufo-Addo urged citizens to be active partakers in the running of the country. But checks by the online news platform showed that it came from George Bush’s 2001 inaugural. Bush then told Americans:

“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,” he said.

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