The 'Kume Preko' demonstration which is described as the apex of citizen defiance is one of many moments usually mentioned by followers of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to underscore his contribution to the growth of the country's democracy.
Regarded as the mother of all demonstrations, the protest which occurred on May 11, 1995 has been touted as one of the historic moments under the fourth republic where Ghanaians crawled out of their shells and spoke truth to power.
It was reported then that nearly 100,000 people showed up at the Obra Spot in Accra for the protest that saw then lawyer Akufo-Addo’s name skyrocket from mere lawyer to a foremost politician and activist.
Though the list of persons who were on forefront included the likes of Dr. Charles Wreko Brobbey (Politician), Kwasi Pratt Jnr (Journalist), Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe (Politician), Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako (Journalist), Akoto Ampaw (Lawyer), Victor Newman (Politician), Kwaku Opoku (Politician), Napoleon Abdulai (Politician) and Agyiri Blankson (Politician), it is Akufo-Addo who became the de-facto leader and had his popularity rise meteorically.
The imposition of the Value Added Tax (VAT) was the immediate cause but there were remote factors that triggered it and Nana Akufo-Addo in various media interactions highlighted these issues.
There was corruption, high cost of living, unemployment and lost of unfulfilled promises by the then Jerry John Rawlings-led National Democratic Congress, NDC, government.
Reports show that the government then did not give in willingly to the demonstrations. It tried to use the security forces and the law to scuttle the planned march but the protesters managed to pass every hurdle to stage it. Eventually, what started off as peaceful protest turned bloody with a number of deaths reported.
Fast forward to 2021 and Nana Akufo-Addo is President of the country with his New patriotic Party, NPP; government and on Sunday, May 9, 2021;they suffered a virtual demonstration that pooled thousands of tweets on social media.
Dubbed the ‘#FixTheCountry demo’, the protest was premised on issues similar to Kume Preko.
Introduction of ‘obnoxious’ taxes, high unemployment rate, unfulfilled promises, corruption, bad road network among others are some of the issues highlighted by the demonstrators.
Just as the Kume Preko which was led by Akufo-Addo and his cohorts who stressed the non-partisan motive behind the march, the #FixTheCountry activists have repeatedly insisted that they are not doing it for political expediency but are genuinely concerned with the state of the country.
Interesting to also note that the two demonstrations, despite being 26 years apart have similar caricature design of a weeping man with his hands raised up indicating that everything has been taken from him.
In the case of #FixTheCountry the identified persons are one Joshua Boye Doe, Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, Felicity Nelson and a dozen others.
The two events in terms of days are just two days apart. While Kume Preko happened on May 11, #FixTheCountry demonstration, took place on May 9.
Ahead of the Kume Preko demonstration, there were threats by state security agencies to deal with the demonstrators and they indeed delivered with several brutalities recorded.
Similarly, the Ghana Police Service cautioned the #FixTheCountry against defying the court order that bars them from demonstrating and promised to deal with them. Videos of armoured police vehicles at some vantage place in Accra are testament to the determination by the police to act on their words.
The deployment of the armed security officers became subject of mockery on social media with the activists affirming their determination to continue pushing for good governance.
#FixTheCountry demonstration was held virtually on Sunday