Deputy Chief of Staff Abu Jinapor says President Akufo-Addo’s decision not to don the official Ghana@60 anniversary for the independence day parade was deliberate.
The deputy Chief of Staff says the choice of the smock was to represent Northern Ghana where the attire is an iconic cultural feature.
The vice-chairman of the Ghana@60 anniversary planning committee said during the inauguration of the NPP government on January 7, President had donned a beautiful kente to represent the South where the intricately woven cloth is symbolic.
The defence comes after Ghana’s critical and mocking social media jumped on the President’s ‘bad taste’ of attire for the independence day parade.
Critics say on the day when all eyes were fixed on the President, he failed to mobilise Ghanaians to patronise the anniversary cloth.
They questioned how the government could set a theme of the celebrations as ‘mobilising for a better future’ when it could not even mobilise Ghanaians to buy the locally printed anniversary cloth.
The president was not alone in the firing line of criticisms. The Vice-President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also wore an elaborate blue ‘agbada’ accompanied by his wife,Samira, in a dress choice which also snubbed the anniversary cloth.
All former Presidents wore the anniversary cloth except President Kufuor. A former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings also wore the cloth but not the current First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo.
Abu Jinapor explained that the President first wore his anniversary cloth when he attended a premiering of a documentary of the independence struggle in Accra.
He assured Ghanaians, there will be ‘several opportunities’ for the president to wear the cloth.
