The Deputy Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mark Okraku Mantey has given his understanding of the booing incident that transpired at the Global Citizens Festival event.
Mr. Okraku Mantey said President Akufo-Addo was not booed at the September 24 event as speculated.
According to him, the President was cheered for his massive work in the midst of the global challenges.
In an interview on Accra-based Hitz FM’s “U Say Wetin” show, the Deputy Minister claimed that the circulated video was deliberately crafted by a group of mischievous persons just to tarnish the President’s image and the beauty of the concert.
“The President, who came on stage and had to struggle and wait for the crowd to cheer him for a minute. That was what happened. I was there [with regard to] the sound we got from backstage, we were wowed. They were cheering him until Sunday morning it was going to be difficult for me to hear boo they were talking about,” he noted.
He added “It gives me the clue that the person thought it through, orchestrated it and said look this is too good, it will be too good for this President, why don’t we find something negative.
“And you could tell it was someone taking the video far from the stage. Someone stands somewhere, decides to orchestrate it, and the person makes the noise with his phone capturing sounds around that place,” the Minister emphasized.
According to Mr. Okraku Mantey, one thing he has since been struggling to understand is the fact that even in the era of social media posts, there wasn’t any of the purported booings till the following morning the alleged fake news was paraded around.
“I watched the video and I asked myself, how come throughout the night we never saw a tweet on this and after five or six hours, there is a story? So when the booing was going on no one tweeted it for the first time, social media has become dormant until the morning,” he stated.
Some outraged and suffering Ghanaian youth who attended the Global Citizens Music Festival reportedly gave the President an unpleasant evening during his speech at the event.
Soon after the President mounted the stage to deliver the 6-minute welcome address, he was booed with “away! “Away! “chants from the crowd.
It continued till the President concluded his speech at the Black Stars Square on Saturday, September 24.
