It was all seriousness and tranquillity until Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Charles Owiredu, mispronounced some words while delivering a speech at the commemoration of the 71st World Commonwealth Day in Accra.
A herculean task it seemed for him, as he struggled with the word ‘propitious’.
It took the minister over 12 seconds to pronounce the word right because the more efforts he made, the more mistakes he exhibited.
The good thing for him was, he had a well-composed audience who kept their calm all through his ‘mess’.
“We also congratulate the president of the Royal Commonwealth Society, the staff of the society for this propertitus, pro-pe-ti-tus, propeti, pro, propitious occasion,” he stuttered.
Perhaps the message got lost on its way from the brain to his mouth which resulted in a very funny, embarrassing, and memorable moment.
Though his audience kept their composure during this period, the deputy minister who was well aware of his struggle, couldn’t hide his embarrassment.
Mr. Owiredu is not the first Ghanaian politician to have encountered such an incident as Late President Prof Evans Atta Mills during his first sessional address to parliament went off the hook by pronouncing the word economy as ‘Eco mini’.
