Where Are The Demonstrations That Were a Daily Feature of Life During Mahama’s Administration?
As the national economy continues to wobble and struggle mightily, and Ghanaians are forced to dig deeper into their pockets to pay higher prices for food, commodities and services, and as the country descends further into lawlessness, there has neither been a howl or a cry from those who did not hesitate to organize public demonstrations at a moment’s notice during the previous administration.
One, is therefore compelled to ask: where is the anger and frustrations that were so ubiquitous and publicly vented when the NDC was in control?
Indeed, what has happened to the loud and noisy protests that greeted Ghanaians every morning and were supposedly organized to highlight the miserable, harsh, and unbearable living conditions under Mahama that allegedly drove millions of Ghanaians into poverty and despair?
Almost on a daily basis, and as if on cue, the anti Mahama groups masquerading as civil society entities while in actuality they are hardcore partisan hacks — tried their darndest to discredit Mahama’s government with frivolous charges of mismanagement and incompetence.
Aided by their surrogates in the media who gave them extensive coverage and plentiful airtime, they railed, screamed and thrust their fingers at Mahama while calling for all kinds of inquiries into allegations of graft and corruption.
Their goal was unambiguous; it was crystal clear they wanted a change of government. In other words, they thought Ghana would be better off, financially and economically, with the NPP at the helm of affairs. But their hopes are fast fading, turning to dust.
Things have not changed as they had hoped; the economy is in a free fall and Ghanaians are contending with the same set of terrible economic circumstances they dealt with during the much maligned Mahama administration.
And those who shouted their voices hoarse condemning, abusing and denigrating Mahama have been strangely quiet. Indeed, their silence is deafening.
As their fellow citizens continue to bear the brunt of the NPP’ harsh economic policies amidst reports of increasing criminality around the nation, Occupy Ghana and others have suddenly developed cold feet; looks like they have deliberately lost their mojo, their enthusiasm to take on the government; they are nowhere to be seen or heard.
Truth is they are yet to organize a single public demonstration to focus attention on the problems facing Ghanaians.
What is more galling is the fact that this bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites have not raised a voice against the disproportionate number of the president’s family and kinsmen and women in government.
Instead, what we are hearing from these individuals are a pathetic and weak defense of the status quo and the offering of lame and laughable excuses for the poor performance of the ruling NPP.
There was the insufferable Casely Hayford, a self proclaimed financial expert and a high ranking member of OG — who, it may be recalled, recently offered profuse apologies for his offensive remarks about parliament —- shamelessly asserting that it was too early to level criticism against the NPP. His reason? “It is just six months into the administration; it is too early to expect results.”
And then, this shocker from the ever talkative Upper West Regional Chairman of the NPP, Alhaji Rahman Abubakar, that the party needs to be in power for twenty years for Ghana to be thoroughly developed and for Ghanaians to be free from grinding poverty.
Did I hear him right? Was he hallucinating or was he out of his element? Or worse, was he parroting, in fact, thinking out aloud what others in the party are seriously and quietly contemplating and plotting?
Well, there is more than enough, irrefutable evidence to demonstrate that Ghanaians have been saddled with a party that does not know what it is doing, a party groping in the dark, a party that made a lot of campaign promises which it is finding difficult to fulfill.
That Occupy Ghana and its associates could hide their true partisan colors and take Ghanaians for a ride was due largely to the gullibility of the ordinary Ghanaian who is too trusting most of the time.
The one takeaway from the experience with these NPP affiliated groups is this: they don’t represent the interests of Ghanaians; they have an agenda, and that is, to perpetuate the rule of their political paymaster. They have lost all credibility and should be seen for what they are: shameless sycophants.