US Embassy tweet courts controversy
President John Dramani Mahama might not have responded to an apology by the US Embassy over a rude tweet from its official handle, but the explanation accompanying the apology appeared not to have sat well with Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Advertisement
Ms Hannah Tetteh, who felt the US Embassy was only trying to find lame excuses, sought to ask why the Embassy wanted to extricate itself from a tweet coming from its official account.
On July 17, President Mahama, in typical fashion, had used social media to communicate the need for Ghanaians to make sacrifices in these challenging times, as there was light at the end of the tunnel.
He tweeted on his site @JD Mahama, "As a people, we have had to make sacrifices. I wish to assure you that the results of these sacrifices would begin to show very soon."
Shortly after, a response came from the US Embassy’s official handle, which stated, “And what sacrifices are you making? Don't tell me that pay cut."
It was in apparent reference to the 10 per cent pay cut by the President right down to his ministers to serve as an example of the sacrifices members of the Executive were making towards efforts at overcoming the economic challenges facing the country.
Responses
The tweet from the US Embassy elicited fierce responses and condemnation from some state officials, who felt the Embassy was unduly interfering in the politics of the country and showing disrespect to the President.
Among the officials were Ms Tetteh and Ras Mubarak, the Coordinator of the National Youth Authority.
Other Trending Stories
Mubarak, on Facebook, for instance, called on the Foreign Minister to summon the US Ambassador to explain the undiplomatic comment.
Atmosphere heats up
As the atmosphere got heated up on social media with accusations and counter-accusations on the issue, the Embassy came up with an apology and went ahead to explain the circumstances surrounding the whole development.
It shifted blame onto one of its officials for the blunder, not the embassy or the US government.
It tweeted: “The earlier errant tweet was a private message mistakenly sent out on our account. The views expressed in no way reflect the views of the United States Government or the US Embassy.”
The Embassy further promised to ensure that “all of our employees fully understand their responsibility toward carefully managing our public outreach through social media”.
“We have apologised to the President and we offer an apology to the Ghanaian people. Our staff mixed a personal handle with that of the embassy's, ” it concluded.
Not satisfied with the explanation, Ms Tetteh hit back with, “The tweet was public and associated with your twitter handle. It was not a private/personal account.”
She was apparently not satisfied with the explanation by the US Embassy.
No official statement had come from the Presidency.
Meanwhile, Ghanaians continued to express their personal views on the issues on social media.
While some vehemently condemned the US Embassy and urged the government to take ‘diplomatic action’ against the Ambassador, others were of the view that the issue be put to rest.