Is it Accent or Eloquence?

Many at times you hear comments like “This television presenter is ‘forcing’ accent” This has been said about Robin Kisti of the LOGIN tv presenter(currently on a maternity leave) . Thence I ask do we confuse the accent with eloquence? Are the two interchangeably misconstrued or misused? Accent is intonation, cadence, inflection or modulation of the voice. The verb of accent is accentuate which is to mark or pronounce, lay stress upon with a given accent. We have many English accents especially for communities where English is a second language. Even in United Kingdom, there are many accents depending on the country Welsh, Scottish, Irish and English. So the tragedy with our people is despising accents and thinking that there is a general accepted accent. An accent is developed depending on the area one grows up from. What is important though is eloquence in whichever accent. Eloquence is the oratory art of speech which is gracefully and vigorous. It is the impassioned utterance, which is powerful and flowing. Now this is where the problem arises, we think whoever doesn’t fill this criterion has a forced accent. The answer is a resounding no. For example Idi Amin might have had issues with grammar but not eloquence, he knew the art of communication. Similarly most of those who fail the eloquence test are quickly dismissed as accent “forcing” . Therefore there is no standard or acceptable english accent,it varries. What is important though is eloquence and flow of words. The tragedy of our society today is wanting our newsanchors to sound like Christine Amanpour.