It was an interesting sight to behold when a blogger cum journalist decided to hold a Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Georgina Opoku-Amankwaa, over a new logo they are planning to outdoor.
The new logo, which is set to be launched sometime this month, caught the attention of journalists attending a workshop to build their capacity on election reporting in Accra yesterday.
It does not bear any effigy that represents the body or the government and people of Ghana and therefore looked quite strange to those who saw it, since it was at variance with the normal EC logo.
During question and answer time, a journalist therefore asked about the logo which bore no semblance of the existing one which has the national insignia of the coat of arms with what looks like a hand casting a ballot in it.
But the answer provided by Mrs. Opoku-Amankwaa was what seemed to have provoked a daughter of Ama Ata Aidoo, a celebrated author and poet, Kinna Likimani, to challenge the EC big shot over her attempt at justification.
In her response, she said the logo was a new one designed by the Commission and was set to be launched in the course of this month.
But an obviously disappointed Likimani with Blogging Ghana, who speaks fluent English and Fante, could not hold her fire, expressing grave concern in a fit of anger.
Banter
That, according to her, was because “it bears no relevance whatsoever; does not invoke Ghana whatsoever; it looks like the logo of an international organization dealing with children.”
Not even the explanation by Mrs. Opoku-Amankwaa that the logo has the red, gold and green national colours would suffice for a justification.
The journalist insisted, “This logo here, it doesn’t evoke any of those and we have to wonder why go through the process of doing a new logo for the EC… it is like somebody gets up and decides that we are going to change the logo of Parliament; no you can’t do that.”
For close to five minutes, Likimani, who might be in her mid 40s, engaged the woman in a banter, catching the attention of all, with the EC representative literally sweating to find any justification, apart from her claim that a lot of consideration and thinking went into the designing of the logo before eventually deciding to settle on it.
Reason
Likimani was interested in finding out who they (referring to the EC) reached out to [stakeholders] before coming out with the logo which she said “looks like some children are holding up some balls, ready to go and play basket ball; and that is very nice for an organisation that runs children programmes but not for the EC”
That’s, she said, was because “We have lots of images; we have our flag, our coat of arms …we have lots of things here in Ghana that we can cobble together a logo for the EC that evokes voting, evokes people’s franchise and representation and evokes Ghana.”
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