Lana Osei is a JURIST workers correspondent in Ghana and a latest graduate of the GIMPA (Ghana Institute of Administration and Public Administration) College of Legislation. She information this dispatch from Accra.
On Tuesday, October 3, Accra, Ghana’s capital and a metropolis of nicely over two million folks, bore witness to 2 impactful protests. The primary passed off in Ashiaman, a spirited community fervently advocating for the urgent repair of their deteriorating road infrastructure. Regardless of a significant police presence, the impassioned residents mobilized an indication to attract consideration to the deplorable state of their street networks. In an act of civil disobedience, main highways had been briefly blocked to emphasise their grievances.
Among the demonstrators was their Member of Parliament, Mr. Ernest Henry Norgbey, standing in solidarity along with his constituents and denouncing the federal government’s inaction regardless of exhaustive makes an attempt to handle the dire street situations inside and out of doors the parliamentary sphere. The protesters sentiment gave the impression to be that their roads stay uncared for resulting from Ashaiman being a stronghold of the Nationwide Democratic Congress, the main opposition to the incumbent Ghanaian authorities.
Within the different and really bigger protest later the identical day, a coalition comprising the parliamentary minority and varied civil society organizations converged on the Circle Interchange in Accra. A day earlier than the protest the Ghana Police issued a press statement highlighting that they’d made what they thought-about to be sufficient preparations to make sure peace, safety, regulation and order on the stated protest —which they later seem to have lived as much as, because the Inspector Common of Police was finally cited congratulating his men for a job well done.
The rallying cry, ‘MO NGYAE SIKADIE NA YE BRE,’ translated to English as ‘cease stealing, we’re struggling,’ encapsulated the demonstrators collective grievance over Ghana’s plummeting economic system, exacerbated by the Financial institution of Ghana’s abysmal efficiency beneath its incumbent Governor. The protesters known as for the resignation of the Governor of the Financial institution of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison. Below Dr. Addison’s management, Ghana has lost about $6.3B USD of its currency reserves in 2 years. As of this writing, $6.3 billion is equal to roughly GHS 55.5 billion. In the identical vein the central financial institution is reported to have printed about GHS 77 billion for government spending. The nation has currently made its seventeenth journey to the International Monetary Fund for a GHS 37.8 billion bailout with hopes of restoring macroeconomic stability.
In the meantime on X, (previously Twitter), the hashtag #OccupyBoG rapidly gained traction, with many Ghanaians utilizing the hashtag to share their tales of hardship and to name for change.
A day after the stated protest the Governor of the Bank of Ghana retorted, saying; the protest was fully pointless seeing that the minority in parliament have so many different channels to channel their grievances.
As a Ghanaian, what I discover hanging is how the incumbent authorities’s main financial insurance policies typically appear to perform merely as a placebo. The policymakers, seated on the proverbial desk, typically exhibit lamentable indifference in direction of the well-being and wishes of our folks. A whopping majority of Ghanaians are uninterested in enjoying fetch with these stakeholders. For my part it’s crucial that these grandiose financial insurance policies manifest into tangible, actionable outcomes that really improve the on a regular basis lives of the Ghanaian populace.
The nationwide every day minimal wage in Ghana stands at a mere GHS14.88 ($1.42). This stark actuality serves as a evident reminder of the urgent want for insurance policies that genuinely uplift and empower our residents.
Opinions expressed in JURIST Dispatches are solely these of our correspondents within the area and don’t essentially mirror the views of JURIST’s editors, workers, donors or the College of Pittsburgh.
