How I defended My President on Facebook platform in Sweden

In this vibrant age of social networks such as facebook, information spread very fast and therefore what happens in Accra is seen and heard in Stockholm, Lagos, London, New York – all over the within matter of seconds. Whilst we strive to promote freedom of speech and information to entrench our fragile democracy, it is important for us to always remember that we have the responsibility to up hold and defend the good name of Ghana including our president and other high public officers in everything we do whenever necessary.

On 23rd August this year, I received facebook messages from my friends in Sweden (mostly Nigerians and some other nationals) about the way H.E President John Evans Attah Mills fumbled during his first State of the Nation Address in Parliament when he assumed office. What I will call the famous ecomini speech. I believe most Ghanaians remember this very well because it became a ringtone where political opponents, the media and even musicians capitalised on it to pursue their agenda. The whole speech was uploaded on youtube and people all over the world to download and entertain themselves with it. To some extent, it showed how vibrant the Ghanaian media is and more importantly how tolerant the current president is because he did not utter a word about it. However, as I said from the beginning, we should know that those who thought they were only laughing at the president got it wrong! The whole country was mocked at all over the world. To be precise, the video clip is titled: "President of Ghana Murdering English."

My friends in Sweden particularly Nigerians starting putting it on their facebook walls and making derogatory remarks about Ghanaians. Yes, Ghanaian and not President Mills. Knowing how I have been defending my country both in lecture halls and in our residential area during my postgraduate studies, they kept sending the video clip about the ecomini speech as a teasing stuff. At first, I took it as a joke but when I realised the damage they were causing due to the faster rate the video was spreading from friends to interconnection of friends, I decided to silence.

How I defended my president as a postgraduate Ghanaian researcher in Sweden.

Below is the full message I sent to my Nigerian friends and others who were laughing at Ghanaians for the president's fumbling:

Oh boy, this is about 2yrs ago. This was his first day in parliament to present state of the nation address. I felt very bad for such display.

However, these are slips of tongue emanating from common psychological disorder called stage fright as you may be acutely aware. It is NOT about grammatical errors or deficiency in the use of English language. I have been following this man since 1996; he has no problem at all with the English language. This man is a professor of Law, not from any ordinary university but LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS. He has lectured both abroad, Univ. of Ghana Law faculty and GHANA SCHOOL OF LAW for several years. So definitely he is not inept when it comes to using the Queens' language. But as I said it was a short term psychological problem that affects many people at a particular time when they are too anxious. It even happened to Obama (one of the world acclaimed orators) during his inaugural speech. He fumbled. This is different from committing grammatical errors, wrong usage of vocabularies, given weird pronunciation which cannot be deciphered by recipients and any other errors/problems associated with language usage we can think of.

By the way, why should we even bother about who uses the English language well or not as Africans? Over fifty yrs after independence, our leaders have been speaking big Englishes, pretend to Speak like the Queen but we still do not have quality education, no consistent electricity, no food security, high level of epidemics, continue to chase loans from the western world, import everything including tooth picks and many useless things from China. Meanwhile the Chinese, Indians and many of the Asian economic tigers do not speak English like the British or the queen, and Americans.

Two yrs ago when I heard my president fumbled in the parliament house, I felt bad. But hey, I quickly changed my feelings. I said to myself, what will I gain if my president speak eloquently and at the end of the day they are not translated into reality but rather become mere rhetoric as it has been over 50yrs of independence? So it is about taking account of the substantive issues our leaders make not just about their prowess over the use of somebody's mother tongue.

Yes, I felt bad, just as you may or the opposite but after two years of his leadership; he has been able to bring inflation to single digit at least quantitatively. People have started feeling it in their pockets slowly. Recently, his policy of single Spine Salary has brought improvement in the salary of police personnel with the lowest rank earning 700GHC as compared to 300GHC before. This will go a long way to stop them from taking bribes at the road side and in the end reduce corruption. He has also embarked on building 200, 000 units affordable housing projects throughout the whole country. When completed all the security personnels will be entitled to their own dignified houses. The rest will be there for Ghanaians to mortgage them at affordable prices. In the end Ghana's housing deficit will be reduced and people will have descent standard of living.

These, I think, which I know you also, believe are important not speaking like the British or Americans.

Talk to you later,
Carmah.
The above message silenced them. They stopped sending me messages about the speech and putting it on their facebook walls. Many of them started writing to me that that was a nice message to defend my president and my country as a Ghanaian. Some of them changed their stands, wrote to and called me that it was a joke since they know professor Mills very well. Thus, he is endowed with wisdom and knowledge. He has no problem with grammar, correct usage of vocabulary and eloquently expressing himself in English as a second language taking into consideration his long service in the academia, private and public in Ghana and in the international community. So just as I said what happened to him happens to many people whenever they too anxious.

In the 21st century, the world will be shaped not only by what happened in New York, London, Berlin and many giant cities but what happened in Accra, Lagos, Freetown and many villages, towns and cities in the developing world. We are in the global village and in fact this global village is even becoming a cottage due to high level of information technology and its widespread associated social networks like facebook.

When our president fumbled, we all laughed. The laughing did not end in the parliament house but spread across the whole nation and finally went international. This was due to the way we digitized or package the whole stuff – making it a ringtone, remixing it into songs and upload it on youtube, facebook and other electronic platforms. This showed high level of freedom of speech and the level of tolerance in Ghana today. In some countries or sometime ago in Ghana, you dare not as we subjected our president to.

We give ourselves credit in terms of media freedom and freedom of expression. Nevertheless, as we enjoy our rights to free speech, it is always important that we also observe the borderlines. We should always remember that rights to speech come with responsibilities. As Ghanaians (particularly those of us in abroad) we should always remember to uphold, defend the good name of Ghana and our sitting presidents in anywhere we found ourselves whenever necessary. The image of Ghana should be promoted not only during world cups as we witnessed in South Africa few months ago. But it should be protected against any negative submissions anywhere we found ourselves like on facebook platform.

For me, I promise to up hold, defend the good name of Ghana, of which, the president represents its image.

Long live Ghana, long lives the sitting president and any high public office holder in our beloved country.