Protesters
Protests in Ghana have lost their relevance in a way.
Inasmuch as we would want to see systems changed, we have to be real. We have records of civil society organisations turning out to become political party tools.
Media men who once spoke for citizens became appointees and suddenly lost their taste for national discourse.
We were here when #OccupyGhana was all over the place. People claimed to be working like bulls. Now they are nowhere to be found. From their website, the most recent activity is something on the Right To Information bill, a good fight.
However, before 2016, this was one of the well-organised pressure groups to associate with. I still cannot find my favorite guy, Ace Ankomah.
Now the tables have turned and we have #OccupyJulorbiHouse with persons who clearly have an affinity towards the NDC leading it in a way. This makes it difficult for the one who actually wants to demonstrate for Ghana.
How sure are you that the people you are with on the streets today will not turn around and become a minister of finance who claimed fuel prices were expensive then so the government was a failure but now defends that we should build a new Bank of Ghana when we are struggling to sustain the nation except for IMF? Such persons now justify involving pension funds in Domestic Debt Exchanges.
It is a game. Really.
The game is being played. We were all here when the Otabils, Dag’s, Duncans, Eastwoods, Palmers, etc were using their pulpits to preach in a way and manner that spoke to the realities of #Dumsor back then.
Today, it looks like the ‘holy’ spirit has left them so they can’t speak or their tongues are licking something different.
How did the executive director of IEA get whisked into the chair of the Electoral Commission and then we lost the opportunity to see these guys debate in 2020 like we saw in 2016?
Today, they are justifying not extending voter registration to all areas just as they will send ballot boxes to every area come 2024.
For me, the spectacle we are seeing today is a reflection of what we have been doing to ourselves in the past two or three decades. We accepted that everything should be controlled by a politician who without a political office, may never even get an opportunity to sit at the table of men.
We watched them and gave them so much power that even men in uniform were afraid to question these men because they could cause your transfer to a bad place. We don’t seem to realise the trench we are digging. We don’t seem to appreciate the impact of our decisions today.
We are only enjoying what has been termed in some corridors as ‘NEGATIVE PEACE”. Yes, negative because those with influence will rather not speak to agitate for change.
Those without influence thus have no hope for any change so apathy is the order of the day and the false sense of quietness makes us feel we are at peace. No, we are not.
The game is being played. The masters of the game know the pawns to move on the chessboard to protect the kings and queens (their parochial interests). You may want to read between the lines.
May we get relevant people who will be consistent in their own right to bring back the energies that exist in democratic protests that force governments to DO THE RIGHT THING!