On
Saturday, January 7, 2017 history was made in Ghana, West Africa when Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo was inaugurated and sworn in as the fifth President of the
fourth Republic of Ghana. First of all, we have to give praise and gratitude to
the Almighty God, who made it possible for the elections to be conducted in the
atmosphere of transparency, freedom, and fairness. Both the national and
international observers have testified to the credibility and fairness of Ghana’s
elections. We applaud the citizenry and electorate for the peaceful manner they
conducted themselves during the elections.
Many
guests of honor, foreign diplomats, and those in the Diaspora who flew to Ghana
to observe this splendid occasion have all lauded the event and the activities
thereafter. Once again, glory belongs to the Almighty Father for a good weather
and His journey mercies for all those who traveled from far and near to grace
the occasion.
The
election and inaugural activities have confirmed and strengthened the fact that
democracy has come to stay in sub-Saharan Africa. All the African nations
should learn from the success of these events that Ghana has chalked in its
short but promising democracy.
In
spite of the success of this festive occasion, some detractors, cynics, and skeptics
have resorted to the use of and complaint of plagiarism to mar the beauty of
the events of the day. All of a sudden these detractors have become professors
and researchers who are keen on academic and scholarly integrity. I was not at
the event in person but I listened to some parts of the address by the newly
installed president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. No sooner had the speech ended
than the word “plagiarism” began to fly in the social media. The accusation was
that the president lifted a verbatim quote from former President Bush of the
United States without giving him credit. The speech writer since then has
offered his sincere apology to the nation for such an oversight. Such things
occur from time to time even in rigorous academic settings.
What
bothers me is that even many of those who are throwing the term “plagiarism” around
do not have a clue about the meaning of the word. What is plagiarism? According to Oxford Dictionary, the verb ‘plagiarize’
means “to copy another person’s writings and present them as your own” (Oxford Large Print Dictionary Thesaurus
& Wordpower (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 518). Webster uses
a stronger definition of plagiarize to mean “to steal and pass off the ideas or
words of another as one’s own use (a created production) without crediting the
source, vt (verb transitive) to commit literary theft; present as new and
original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (William Webster, Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield,
Mass: William Webster’s Inc., Publishers, 1986, 898). By way of a reminder, in
scholarly and academic circles the following are considered forms of
plagiarism:
·
Turning in someone else’s work as your
own
·
Copying words or ideas from someone else
without giving credit
·
Failing to put a quotation in quotation
marks
·
Giving incorrect information about the
source of a quotation
·
Changing words but copying the sentence
structure of a source without giving credit
·
Copying so many words or ideas from a
source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or
not.
Fortunately, most cases of
plagiarism can be avoided by citing sources. This site can provide more details
(www. Plagiarism.org/plag_article_what is plagiarism.html).
Why am I laboring at this trivial
issue that some people are making it a big deal out of it? My reason is simple.
Even in academic or scholarly circles some can commit plagiarism inadvertently.
For instance, in schools in the United States where I have taught and those
that I still teach, we educate students to avoid plagiarism. Therefore, at
Liberty University School of Divinity, we use Safe Assign that helps students
to refrain from plagiarism. Grand Canyon University which I used to teach
online courses from 2007-2013, we used TurnItin.
Even
in these institutions, a student’s research paper or term paper is not
blatantly charged as plagiarism until it is flagged as 30% or more in the
similarity index. Now I am coming to the crux of my concern. If preachers in
Ghana, musicians, and writers were to be scrutinized strictly, many of them
would be fined or incarcerated for committing the crime of plagiarism.
Therefore, give the new President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo a break and let
him begin to attend to the mountainous problems of Ghana with the help of God.
Ghana is at the crossroads and needs people of vision, innovation, creativity,
and substance to make the country a better place for all and sundry. We need
all hands on deck and no looting or ulterior motives in leadership. It
is high time to stop the nit picking, bickering, infighting, selfishness,
greed, and corruption and build a better Ghana for our children and their
posterity.
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