President John Dramani Mahama has described the errors in Ghana’s 59th Independence Day anniversary brochure as avoidable and blamed it on what he says is “the printers devil”
“It’s unfortunate. I think those mistakes are avoidable,” he said in an exclusive interview Monday on TV3’s morning magazine show, New Day.
The anniversary brochure, allegedly produced by the Flagstaff House Communication Bureau, was fraught with errors, inaccuracies and misrepresentations.The brochure among other errors, addressed Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta as the President of Ghana; something that grabbed international headlines and criticism.
Social media was awashed with snapshots of the various errors and inaccuracies, which some Ghanaians say has exposed the country to international ridicule.
But President Mahama believes those unpardonable errors and misrepresentation did not mar what he said was a beautiful celebration of Ghana’s 59th independence day on March 6.
“It was a beautiful celebration. I don’t think it should have been marred by something as simple as the printer’s devil in the brochure,” he stated, adding that the Chief of Staff is working to ensure such event does not occur.
“The Chief of Staff is working on it to make sure that does not happen again. The Chief of staff is dealing with that and I think that the Chief of Staff has received reports on what happened and so he is taking remedial action to make sure it doesn’t happen again and I think that those are administrative measures that are within his ambit to take,” he said.
He added: “Ghanaians want to be sure that when we have such impressive ceremony its not marred by things like mistakes in the brochure. I think we can do it well.”
On whether the Kenya’s President saw the misrepresentation of his designation and what he said about it, President Mahama said President Kenyatta did not spot the error.
“We actually went through the brochure and he didn’t show that he notice he was described as the President of Ghana…he was particularly intrigued by the picture of Nkrumah and his family” he said, adding that Mr Kenyatta has requested for a framed copy of the said picture.
By Stephen Kwabena Effah|tv3network.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh