Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abu Jinapor has explained the reason behind President Nana Akufo-Addo's refusal to wear the official cloth for Ghana's 60th-Anniversary celebration during the national parade to climax the celebration.
President Akufo-Addo wore a white smock instead of the official anniversary cloth as many Ghanaians had been expected.
His Vice, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia and former President John Agyekum Kufuor wore a blue and a white boubou respectively.
As if by design, spouses of the President and Vice President, and almost all the members of government including the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Ocquaye; Chief of Staff, Frema Osei Opare; Ministers of State; and even members of the Planning Committee itself did not wear the official cloth.
Considering the fact that former Presidents Jerry John Rawlings and John Dramani Mahama and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings donned the official Ghana@60 cloth, many have described the refusal by the President and his entourage as a blatant snub of the cloth.
The critics, especially on social media, have questioned why the President through the planning committee will commission the cloth to be manufactured and refuse to wear it alongside his appointees.
But the Deputy Chief of Staff who doubles as the Vice Chairman of the Ghana@60Â Planning Committee has explained that President Akufo-Addo's decision not to wear the cloth was not a snub but a deliberate decision to project Northern Ghana, the origin of the attire he wore.
According to him, during his inauguration on January 7, President Akufo-Addo put on a kente to represent the South and the smock was to balance the scale.
Assuring Ghanaians that there will be 'several opportunities' for the President to wear the cloth, Mr Jinapor maintained that it could not have been a snub by the President as he had already worn the cloth when he attended the premiering of "From Gold Coast to Ghana", a documentary on Ghana's history, last Saturday at the Accra International Conference Centre.
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