<<Print>>President John Mahama has revealed the Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta called him to express his (Kenyatta’s) excitement about Ghana’s 59 Independence Day Anniversary celebration.
President Mahama made this known on TV3 on Monday when he pointed out that in spite of the errors that characterised the Independence Day event brochure, the event was well organised.
“The anniversary was very well organised. I want to commend the national planning committee for choreographing the event very well. I’m sure that Ghanaians watched it live and everybody was proud of what they saw. Indeed I got a call from the President Kenyatta after he got back home and he expressed how much he enjoyed the parade. He particularly liked the Gold Coast Police,” he said.
The President expressed regret the event was marred by the brochure saga, which has been called ‘BrochureGate’ in a section of the media.
Describing the errors as unfortunate, the President said they were avoidable.
“It was a beautiful celebration I don’t think it should have been marred by something as simple as the printer’s devil in a brochure, “he said.
The brochure was characterised by incomprehensible grammatical expressions, poor spelling and a host of other inaccuracies. The most damning error was the representation of Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as the President of Ghana.
Expressions such as, "The innovated partnership is being concretised in many areas of economic trajectory, particularly trade...", "...rainbow at the end of the tunnel...", "...as if by divine-designed..." and "Ghana has attained low-income status in the world...", have also been described as ambiguous or false by some observers.
President Mahama said the Kenya President did not create the impression that he noticed the misrepresentation of his position.
“We actually went through the brochure and he [Uhuru Kenyatta] didn’t show that he noticed that he was described as the President of Ghana, but I’m sure in communication you people call it the printer’s devil. It’s unfortunate and I think those mistakes are avoidable. The Chief of Staff is working on it to make sure that, it doesn’t happen again, he said.