If she were not the minister responsible for Tourism,, Culture and Creative Arts; and if she was not attending the prestigious Ghana Music Awards, and if she had just kept her mouth shut, perhaps Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare would have gotten away with her gaffe.
But last Saturday evening, the minister was attending what was arguably the biggest music event in the country, the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, which over the 15 years that it has travelled, has become the one event that extends beyond music to highlight other cultural manifestations such as clothing and accessories.
So how can anyone expect that the minister, who, at many other official engagements, had been seen to push the Ghana agenda admirably by the way she presents herself in Kente and other such distinctly Ghanaian outfits, would on a day like this wear a Moroccan outfit and confidently tell the world that indeed she was wearing a foreign outfit on a Ghana culture platform.
To make it more curious, the minister went on and on talking about music and the creative arts and their important place in the scheme of Ghana’s tourism offerings.
That was definitely a piece of speech that many who heard her live on three local television stations and at least half a dozen more streaming on the internet, may have taken with a considerable amount of wincing.
We at Showbiz, disappointed with the minister’s gaffe as we are, are tempted to regard it as a rather careless mistake and allow it to pass mainly because the same minister has on many occasions presented herself as a true Ghanaian model that many other women can look up to.
We hope that Mrs. Ofosu Agyare will learn a lesson from the mistake and henceforth be more careful about how she presents herself as a Ghanaian minister and also be aware that by virtue of her position, the country watches what she does and another such gaffe may not be received lightly by the people she exercises responsibility over – the creative artists.
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