The Deputy Information Minister, Fatimatu Abubakar says American rapper Meek Mill did not use the Presidential lectern for his now-deleted music video that generated controversy last Monday.
According to Ms Abubakar, the lectern which was used in Meek’s video is used by visitors when they address the President.
According to her, in the past, there have been countless instances where visitors to the Jubilee House have recorded videos at the forecourt, banquet hall or the ground floor/waiting area of the seat of government.
She said the difference in the reaction to Meek’s video was because of the way his music video was put together.
Ms Abubakar said the protocol system at the Jubilee House and the Diaspora Directorate had learnt lessons from the incident but urged Ghanaians not to downplay the competence of those officers.
“First of all, that was not the President’s lectern,” Ms Abubakar said in an interview on Asempa FM. Instead, she said there was another lectern at the banquet hall of the Jubilee House that visitors used when addressing the President.
The rapper has apologised for filming the music video in Ghana’s presidential palace, also known as Jubilee House. The star caused an uproar with the video, which saw him lip-syncing in the palace’s corridors and halls.
He was accused of “desecrating” Jubilee House, while MPs raised questions about the potential security risks.
In a statement, Mill said he would “take responsibility for my mistake”.
“To the people of Ghana, no video I drop is ever meant to disrespect the people of Ghana,” he wrote.
“The fastest way to make a connection is thru music [sic] and I wanted to do that by displaying art. I’m in my 30s from America and didn’t know much about the lifestyle.”
Mill, who was born Robert Rihmeek Williams in South Philadelphia, travelled to Ghana last month, after learning in an ancestry test that he was 18% Ghanaian.
He performed at the Afronation concert in Accra, rode dirt bikes in the city streets, and was later invited to see Jubilee House.
The footage he filmed during his visit was uploaded to Instagram on Sunday, provoking outrage in the West African nation.
Some members of the opposition have called for the persons who allowed the filming to be sacked.
“All those responsible for this despicable desecration of the Jubilee House by Meek Mill must be fired immediately,” wrote Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a member of parliament for the North Tongu district.
“How do those explicit lyrics from the president’s lectern project Ghana positively? Is Ghana’s seat of government no longer a high-security installation?”
The MP, whose NDC party is in opposition to the President’s National Patriotic Party, said he would call for an inquiry into the incident when Parliament returns from recess.
“We will insist that all those who masterminded this national disgrace and international embarrassment are brought to book,” he told Accra-based Joy FM radio station.
Ghana’s former deputy Chief of Staff Alex Segbefia agreed that the video was “unnecessary and is unacceptable in any shape or form”.
Social activist Julius Kwame Anthony added that “seeing a foreign musician on the pulpit of the president” was a “shocking” incident that “is sinking our country to a new depth”.
“I do not think under any circumstance would it be allowed for a Ghanaian musician [like] Shatta Wale or Stonebwoy to be on the pulpit of the President of the United States. It would not happen”.
In his statement, Mill explained that he had simply been excited to share his experiences in Ghana with the world.
