NDC hits streets …Petitions Nana Addo, Parliament

A few thousands of unhappy-looking members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), dressed in red and black colours, on Tuesday embarked on a protest march along some major streets of Accra, over what they described as an ever-increasing unbearable hardship and a cocktail of injustices under the leadership of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

The NDC street protest, named, ‘March For Justice’ also saw the party present a petition to President Akufo-Addo and a copy delivered to Parliament.

The petition was signed by George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer, of the NDC and was said to have been authored on behalf of the youth of Ghana.

Nana Akufo-Addo’s copy of the petition was received by  the Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of operations, Emmanuel Bossman, who promised the protesters it shall be  delivered to the President.

At Parliament, the petition was received by the leadership of the Majority and the leadership of the Minority sides of the House.

The ‘March For Justice’ street protest was organized by the Youth Wing of the NDC but was attended by party gurus including General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia; Deputy General Secretary, Peter Otukunor, former MP for Dadekotopon, Sylvester Mensah, MP for NIngo-Prampram, Sam George, Kofi Adams, the Buem MP,  and other party notables

It was a generally peaceful march devoid of any extra ordinary occurrences associated with such political street protests.

They held several placards some of which read: “No justice for the dead, No Peace”, Akufo-Addo, you are a dictator”, “Kum Yen Preko”, “We feel your silence Akufo-Addo and Bawumia”, “Ghanaian lives matter”, “Ahmed Suale deserved to live”, #WeAreAllKaaka”,

Though the Ghana Police Service had initially expressed misgivings about the protest and mentioned the ban on social gathering as the reason, it eventually allowed the organizers to have their way.

It is significant to note that apart from the non-observance of social distancing, the protesters did well to respect the COVID safety protocols.

One of the speakers at the event was the NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia: “I agree with the youth of the country, although I’m old. I think it is time for you to arise and hold the older generation accountable because we will soon hand it over to you, and you need to ensure that we don’t hand over a country with no resources, a country that has had all its resources sold by people to look after their families.

“Ensure that you are not handed over to a country with an unstable democracy, a country without justice, or a country that promotes war because we can’t look to the security agencies to protect us. I am very happy you are awake and staging this demonstration,” Asiedu Nketia added.

The petition read in part: “The danger, Your Excellency, is that there is no commitment from you and your government that these life-threatening challenges facing our country will be, at least, reduced. Instead of teaming up with those who have taken inspiration from your edicts to be citizens and not spectators to fix the country, your government is surprisingly averse to calls asking for the fixing of our beloved country. Those crusading for the country to be fixed have become enemies of your government as they are either being intimidated, harassed or killed,” the petition said.

It further noted that although the country was riddled with some age-long challenges issues of corruption, unemployment, nepotism, cronyism and insecurity among other things, have increased unimaginably.