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The work of a head of state is no joking matter, neither can it also be allowed to be dry and humourless! Apart from being the Chief Executive Officer which grants the powers to take critical decisions, that person is to be seen on any day, receiving guests, attending to matters of national interest, locked up some miles away from home, in an international gathering trying to broker a deal or, and this is very important, making speeches! Such people hardly have time for themselves, their spouses and close family relations they very much care for. What about that old school mate whom Mr. President once ate bread and sugar solution with, enjoyed gari and shito and shared the same white shirt or �Kamboo� with, or that heartthrob called a girlfriend whom Mr. President used to paint the whole town red with but who due to his new portfolio with its �protocol� and �diplomacy�, she is unable to get to talk to him anymore or that old plantain and groundnut seller whose base used to be Mr. President�s favourite hangout after school. It was so much fun then, one that knew no �protocol�, �diplomacy� and brings back fond memories every now and then to Mr. President in his quiet moments. But a lot has changed, all these years after school: dressing, nutrition and choice of woman � a point well mastered by South Africa�s Jacob Zuma who just had a third wife, fifth marriage and still counting. In fact, general mannerisms that require tactfulness and carefulness in the way the president behaves towards citizens. Top of the list of �To dos (acceptable) and �Not to dos� (unacceptable) of a president, is the skill of oratory � speechmaking , which in most cases gives a fair idea of how deep or shallow a president is in thinking - very critical for any head of state. Presidents all over the world have tried to avoid the temptation of having to answer every question about their country by appointing spokespersons. But history has shown that these, if you like, voices of the president, can sometimes be inept and grossly incompetent. Ghana is a case study of how so called spokespersons over the years have ended up muddying the waters rather than filtering them clean. Ghana�s current number one citizen, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, has just celebrated his one year�s stay in office. We need not hark back on what went and what didn�t go well but it�s been one interesting year where the president succeeded in creating for himself a huge fan base from a few of his speeches. Fan base? Yes, a huge religious following of his public speeches and how certain pronunciations brought smiles to some faces or squirms from others. Call them gaffes, goofs or slips, he is credited with creating a vocabulary of idiosyncratically pronounced words such as �Ecomini� for Economy, �Ofama� or �Omama� for Obama and �Ofumfuor� for Otumfuor! They may or may not be funny but they represent a certain side of Ghanaian humour which political leaders must learn to appreciate in order to govern without hubris. What about the one regarding a certain Georgina Wood who swore him into office? He is said to have failed to pronounce correctly those very important lines that would make him President forcing the honourable Chief Justice to go back and forth on lines and words. Then came an encounter with some 213 Members of Parliament including a Minority side that was eagerly waiting for a �bomb� to be released and a Majority grouping which sat uneasily, fervently wishing for a clean sheet, this time round from their boss. So when a few lines went by alongside the gulping of what was then known as �Joshua water�, which in itself generated huge cheers, the expectation was heightened for the �inevitable� to happen. Off we go: �Madam Speaker, the figures are so huge that when you want to pronounce them in Twi, there is no better word to use than �opipipiipii�. The word �opipipiipii� itself wasn�t pronounced wrongly, but the reaction from the Minority made it look like, another Presidential mispronunciation! All of a sudden, the President had become a favourite of some disc jockeys at various radio stations using those few presidential lines in and out of their playlists by mixing them with instrumentals that made our president sound like a pop, reggae or hiplife artiste! But even more imaginative was how these presidential slip-ups found their way into mobile phone ringtones! It made for interesting fun, especially when different versions were introduced by the disc jockeys who made it seem as though it was the hottest tune in town gunning for platinum multiple awards. President Mills became a school of many theories with people trying to find out what was responsible for those his new words. Some �enemies� suggested he had problems with his eyes, blaming it on old age: others simply called him a professor who couldn�t get it right when it mattered most. That was a bit too harsh but the president had been opened to public scrutiny regarding his pronunciations of certain words. He also �suffered� the redesigning of his image as a character of well known acts. Images of our president graphically tweaked to portray him as pop star, footballer, professional wrestler and a beauty queen started appearing round the national capital. Some citizens even called for a total ban on all the Mills reggae, R&B, pop, dancehall or hiplife tracks but that campaign didn�t succeed as the demand for those tunes soared... The sharing of more of such tunes via Bluetooth and other duplicating devices has since become a common cyber activity. To compound issues, television viewers were often given glimpses of the huge fonts used to print the President�s texts for delivery which also led to all manner of speculations� But who said he never enjoyed those moments. We cannot tell... The work of a president is as strenuous as the huge demands the populace wants from him/her, so if you are not able to provide portable water, electricity, reduce inflation, improve living standards, some of these ecomini words would suffice... Or would they�? A young man once funnily remarked, �Who doesn�t want his president to sing for him or hear him top the music charts?� Imagine this: One big party is thrown at the Osu Castle junction to mark a year in office. President Mills comes on stage, surrounded by national security capos as backup dancers with DJ John Mahama on the turntables. He picks up a microphone. His time of making history in front of a global audience has come. Looking steady and prepared for action, he turns to DJ Mahama and asks for an instrumental� �DJ let the beat flow�� �Hmmmmm, testing mic, one, two, three!� The fans just love him, he steps up onto the stage� DJ John dishes out the ever popular instrumental, �Auto mechanic� . He sings his way to fame with �Ecomini�, ecomini, ecomini!�� DJ attempts some few mixes and he comes in hard��O... oo...oo pipi...oo pii, Ofama... Omama...Ofum�Ofumfuor�� Humour or irreverence? Ghana could do with much, much, much more humour, and who better to provide it than their politicians, with the Number One Citizen leading the charge?!