Plagiarism saga: It’s a very big deal – Lydia Forson

Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson has charged supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) not to defend the plagiarism of portions of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s inaugural speech because of their love for the party.

According to her, supporters of the party should not dismiss it as “no big deal” because it is a big deal.

She argued that the occasion where the speech was read could be likened to the declaration of independence and something that will be quoted from as he did others for years to come, hence the need for it to be taken seriously.

In a write-up on her blog, she advised: “You can love your party and still be objective; your love won’t shrink because of it.”

To supporters of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) she admonished them to break the cycle of equalisation.

The Sting In A Tale actress noted that if the NPP administration fails, every Ghanaian will suffer the consequence and, therefore, entreated the NDC to support the government and Nana Akufo-Addo to succeed and make good on his promises and anything else “that can give us the better Ghana we long for”.

Below is her full write-up:

GHANA: A New President, A Plagiarized Speech and what the next 4 Years “may” look like if WE don’t Change.

Ghana has a new president, who was sworn in yesterday.

At his inauguration the new President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo read a beautiful speech that left many people feeling inspired.

Unfortunately this was short lived as people found that some portions of the speech was plagiarised by the writer.

This was a real embarrassing end to what was a beautiful ceremony.

But as embarrassing as the whole plagiarism incident is, it’s not just on the President, it’s on whoever wrote it and he/she should be dealt with accordingly.

But unfortunately, it is in our nature to blame whoever is in power for anything that people around them do- nothing new here, just the tables turned, very sad.

And let’s not dismiss it as “no big deal” either. It is a very big deal. This is like the declaration of independence and something that will be quoted from as he did others for years to come; and I’m sure even studied in schools as part of his legacy.

The writer was perhaps inspired, and there’s nothing wrong with that, we’ve all on many occasions (I know I have) been inspired by words of people we look up to; but quoting word for word without acknowledgment is dead wrong.

You can love your party and still be objective; your love won’t shrink because of it.

And not everything is an attack or should be because of who we’re loyal to.

That blind loyalty cost the country on several occasions, and we should know better than to make the same mistake – “when you know better, you do better”

And to the new opposition, I get it, I get that you know had the tables been turned the ex-president wouldn’t have been given a pass and would have been trolled to filth.

It’s only been a day, we haven’t forgotten and don’t expect you to either; the ruling party was extremely critical of the ex-president and it’s only right you feel that you should do the same.

But this is what happens when people are more invested in their political party than they are the country.

And because of this it becomes almost impossible to have an honest discussion about anything and even hold our leaders accountable because depending on who’s in power, we will find every reason in the book to justify or condemn things they do.

But I refuse to go through another four years of discussing things that should end at “you messed up, own it and move on”.

That’s how we got distracted in the first place, discussing why someone was in a military uniform and posing in front of CNN instead of more important issues.

We need to break the cycle of “you do me I do you”, because I know some of you are just waiting for a slip up of any kind to pounce on.

In the end if this president fails, it’s on us the people because we suffer the consequences.

So whether you voted for Nana or not doesn’t really matter right now, you have four years to vote for whoever you want in power and pray they win.

Until then, this is OUR Ghana and it’s our duty to ensure the success of the government; and this means willing the president to succeed and make good on his promises and anything else that can give us the better Ghana we long for.

So it’s time to roll up our sleeves,get our hands dirty and start working.

We’ve got to be a part of the Ghana we dream of.

Long live Ghana.