The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, cannot be held for academic fraud following his inaugural speech which apparently had some paragraphs copied from speeches of former presidents of the United States of America.

READ ALSO: Akufo-Addo's inaugural speech seems to plagiarise George Bush

The National Democratic Congress recently held a press conference, accusing the President of indulging in “academic fraud.”

But Nana Obiri Boahen believes that “The question to ask is who is the original source of the words used by President Akufo-Addo? Certainly not [former] president Bush. Those words were used by President Wildrow Wilson. Since that high profile submission by President Wildrow Wilson, 13 US presidents have used those same words in their inaugural addresses so who has used whose words?”

“The truth is that the biographer of President Wildrow Wilson acknowledged that those words were not original from President Wilson. The original person who rendered that powerful sermon remains unknown. The importance of those words found expression in the speeches of 14 American presidents, the last being President George Bush. None of them made attributions because the original source remains unknown. That explains why President Bush was not accused of plagiarism,” he added. Following the swearing-in of the President and his Vice on Saturday, January 7, 2017, social media was awash with some quotes in Nana Addo’s speech, believed to have been lifted from speeches by two former American Presidents,” he said.

“Mr. Kofi Portuphy [National Chairman of the NDC] and his colleagues understand that there was no bad faith, no shame, and no disgrace, no improper conduct of intellectual dishonesty and no academic fraud on Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” Obiri Boahen added.

READ ALSO: Nana Addo makes fun of plagiarism gaffe

He argued that the NDC “wants the nation to show respect to former President Mahama and so they must also show respect to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”

Analysis

One would have thought the issue of plagiarism or otherwise would have been buried, especially when the Mahama bungalow saga appeared to have overshadowed the incident. It, however, appears that the NPP are not done with this story even after the government came out to offer an apology. This plagiarism case might never die after all.