DispatchesLana Osei is a JURIST staff correspondent in Ghana and a recent graduate of the GIMPA (Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration) Faculty of Law. She files this dispatch from Accra.
On Tuesday, October 3, Accra, Ghana’s capital and a city of well over two million people, bore witness to two impactful protests. The first took place in Ashiaman, a spirited community fervently advocating for the urgent repair of their deteriorating road infrastructure. Despite a significant police presence, the impassioned residents mobilized a demonstration to draw attention to the deplorable state of their road networks. In an act of civil disobedience, major highways were temporarily blocked to emphasize their grievances.
Among the demonstrators was their Member of Parliament, Mr. Ernest Henry Norgbey, standing in solidarity with his constituents and denouncing the government’s inaction despite exhaustive attempts to address the dire road conditions within and outside the parliamentary sphere. The protesters sentiment seemed to be that their roads remain neglected due to Ashaiman being a stronghold of the National Democratic Congress, the major opposition to the incumbent Ghanaian government.
In the other and actually larger protest later the same day, a coalition comprising the parliamentary minority and various civil society organizations converged at the Circle Interchange in Accra. A day before the protest the Ghana Police issued a press statement highlighting that they had made what they considered to be adequate preparations to ensure peace, security, law and order at the said protest —which they later appear to have lived up to, as the Inspector General of Police was eventually cited congratulating his men for a job well done.
The rallying cry, ‘MO NGYAE SIKADIE NA YE BRE,’ translated to English as ‘stop stealing, we are suffering,’ encapsulated the demonstrators collective grievance over Ghana’s plummeting economy, exacerbated by the Bank of Ghana’s abysmal performance under its incumbent Governor. The protesters called for the resignation of the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Dr. Ernest Addison. Under Dr. Addison’s leadership, Ghana has lost about $6.3B USD of its currency reserves in 2 years. As of this writing, $6.3 billion is equivalent to approximately GHS 55.5 billion. In the same vein the central bank is reported to have printed about GHS 77 billion for government spending. The country has lately made its seventeenth trip to the International Monetary Fund for a GHS 37.8 billion bailout with hopes of restoring macroeconomic stability.
Meanwhile on X, (formerly Twitter), the hashtag #OccupyBoG quickly gained traction, with many Ghanaians using the hashtag to share their stories of hardship and to call for change.
A day after the said protest the Governor of the Bank of Ghana retorted, saying; the protest was completely unnecessary seeing that the minority in parliament have so many other channels to channel their grievances.
As a Ghanaian, what I find striking is how the incumbent government’s major economic policies often seem to function merely as a placebo. The policymakers, seated at the proverbial table, often exhibit lamentable indifference towards the well-being and needs of our people. A whopping majority of Ghanaians are tired of playing fetch with these stakeholders. In my opinion it is imperative that these grandiose economic policies manifest into tangible, actionable results that truly enhance the everyday lives of the Ghanaian populace.
The national daily minimum wage in Ghana stands at a mere GHS14.88 ($1.42). This stark reality serves as a glaring reminder of the pressing need for policies that genuinely uplift and empower our citizens.
