Ghana has not cleared herself from the embarrassment that came up after an avoidable error was detected on the ‘Year of Return’ sash presented to the Prime Minister of Jamaica by President Akufo-Addo during his visit and yet another embarrassment has befallen the nation.
There were several ways which the government could have done the needful to save the nation from shame and the latest happened, when Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway cut through a semblance of a Ghana flag in China.
The Minister and Ghana’s ambassador to China with other officials of the Ministry and a Chinese official were captured in a video cutting through the national clours with the black stars in the middle during a sod cutting ceremony to officially open Ghana’s consul in Guangzhou, China.
The first person to raise concern over the issue was the Member of Parliament for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak in a Facebook post on his wall.
This raised eyebrows as many Ghanaians began to question the actions of the Foreign Minister as they believe, she should have known her actions goes against the country’s laws which forbids anyone from undertaking such acts.
The cutting of the National flag by the Minister constitutes damage to the National Flag and is in violation to Section 184 of Ghana’s Criminal and other Offences, 1960, Act 29 and the Flag And Arms Protection Act.
Section 184 of Act 29 reads in part; “whoever does any act or utters any words or publishes any writing with intent to insult or bring into contempt or ridicule the official national flag or emblem of Ghana or any representation or pictorial reproduction, therefore, is guilty of a misdemeanour”.
Among the comments made by some concerned Ghanaians on social media included the fact that if Mrs Ayorkor Botchway was a citizen of the United States of America she could have been imprisoned because the US law provides that whoever knowingly mutilates, defaces, physically defiles, burns, maintains on the floor or ground, or trampled upon any flag of the State would be fined or imprisoned for not more than a year or both.
With these interpretations, it appears Ghana as a country has taken some of these issues for granted.
In a related development recently, the President and the whole nation were heavily embarrassed when the Ghana Beyond Aid Committee used a photo of a building in Kenya as the cover page of the strategy document for Ghana beyond aid policy.
Such an unfortunate incident subjected the whole nation to ridicule and also the infamous plagiarized swearing-in speech still remains fresh in the minds of Ghanaians.
This brings to a series of questions asked by the Ghanaian populace on social media
“So why all these acts of indiscretion by Government officials?”
“So upon all the things they could get to cut as the sod cutting, is it the semblance of the Ghana flag they could get?”
Out of disappointment some people further stated that no serious country would allow such things to happen, China the very country this act was committed in won’t do this to their national flag.
This embarrassment rest on the desk of the State Protocol, at least they could have simply used ribbons in the national colours without necessarily the semblance of the national flag
This act, some conclude as embarrassing and yet very much avoidable. The State Protocol could have done much better.
Source: primenewsghana.com
