A scene from the demonstration
A group of people who are saying there is hardship in the country and have coined the social media tagline ‘FixTheCountry’, yesterday held a demonstration in Accra.
The demonstrators displayed placards some of which demanded the replacement of the constitution.
The appearance of the fresh demand has taken observers of the activities by surprise.
A cynical placard read ‘I may not return home alive from this demonstration. And if I don’t, mama, remember I died fighting for the betterment of the next generation,’ appearing to suggest that he might be killed by the police for exercising his democratic rights.
Some of the other inscriptions were so obscene, they could not be reproduced in the media for public consumption.
‘Fix Dumsor Now’,‘Bring Back La General Hospital’, ‘Justice for Kaaka’ and ‘If Ghana was your personal property, would you run it like this?’, and a motley others constituted the placards displayed during the demonstration.
There were also placards showing ‘Stop the Cathedral and use the proceeds to build hospitals, schools, roads and comfortable houses for the Police’, ‘Ghanaians deserve better.’
The remarks by the head pastor of the Evangelical Methodist Church at Asylum Down, Joshua Kwame Ampadu, which trended on social media, could not have amused organisers of the demonstration.
He said the fortunes of his church have dwindled as a result of the current hardships.
“The church is bleeding,”he said in reference to the reduced tithe from church members many of whom he claims are unable to afford the offerings.
For him, therefore, his participating in the demonstration is because his church is not making as much as it used to do in previous times.
Although he said when he was speaking to the media during the demonstration that the protest is not against the NDC and the NPP, it is against what he said is the bad governance in the country.
The demonstrators started assembling at the Obra Spot near Circle as early as 6am clad in red, black and the red, yellow and green colours of the country.
According to the agreed upon route with the police, the march terminated at the Black Star Square in Accra after meandering through selected portions of the nation’s capital.
The Acting Inspector General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare turned up at the Greater Accra Regional Police Headquarters to boost the morale of personnel providing protection for the demonstrators.
His briefing was about being professional in the task which indeed turned out to be uneventful.
By A.R. Gomda