Valentine’s Day, according to lawyer and historian Frimpong Anokye, became a day for people to perform certain forms of immoral sexual acts.
The day is acknowledged as one to celebrate love in many parts of the world and is also characterized by the donning of red attire by observers of the day.
However, the government of Ghana, as narrated by the historian, deemed it important to effect a change in the name of the day due to its overwhelming negative characterization.
“In the late 90s up to the year 2000, Ghana experienced a shortage of condoms on the days of Valentine’s Day, which forced the government to replace Valentine’s Day with Chocolate Day.”
In 2005, then-tourism minister the late Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey announced that Valentine’s Day would be replaced by a celebration of chocolate, in a bid to encourage citizens of the world’s second-largest cocoa producer to consume more of the crop themselves.
