Arise Ghana protestors clash with police
PNC condemns organisers of Arise Ghana protest
Lead convener of the recently held Arise Ghana protest, Bernard Mornah, has reacted with shock to a statement released by the Peoples National Convention.
According to Bernard Mornah, who is a former PNC national chairman, it is rather shocking to see an opposition party express misgivings about a protest held against a government while the ruling party has yet to make such condemnation.
“Has the NPP issued a statement? The NPP, the party in power, has not issued a statement, and the PNC, a party in opposition, can issue a statement?” he questioned during an appearance on Metro TV’s One on One program hosted by Bridget Otoo.
Accusing the PNC of acting hypocritically, an astonished Bernard Mornah said the party is “Crying more than the bereaved, acting more a Catholic than the Pope. Being a more Ahmadiyya than the Amir, being a more Muslim than the Chief Imam. Jesus Christ... PNC, a socialist political party that is supposed to stand with the people and struggle in the trenches when prices of goods and services have gone asunder without any formula?”
The PNC, in the aftermath of the Arise Ghana protest, which sought to highlight concerns about socio-economic and governance issues in the country, condemned the organisers of the two-day protest, describing demonstrations as outmoded.
According to the PNC, which denied endorsing the protest that saw a clash between police officers and protestors on the first day of the two-day event, it expected the organisers to explore alternative means of communicating their issues to government.
“The PNC believes that, demonstration is part of our democratic dispensation, but street protest such as the one organized by “Arise Ghana” must not and should not be the way a group vests its disappointment on our government, especially in this current circumstance. Certainly, street protest as a form of demonstration is becoming outmoded in modern democracies, and protesting without providing a solution is equally outmoded.
“At this material moment, the PNC is calling on fellow Ghanaians (i.e the “Arise Ghana” group in particular) to rather demonstrate alternative policies that will aid the current government to ameliorate the current economic difficulty and to criticize the government policies via public fora, organizing institutional lectures, peaceful submitting petitions to appropriate government institutions and making use of our court system to push through demands, amongst other means."
GA/BOG
Lead Convener of Arise Ghana protest, Bernard Mornah