The demo is scheduled for August 4
• #FixTheCountry campaigners have announced a new date for their protest
• It comes on the back of the police’s decision to provide protection for the NDC demonstration on July 4
• They turned down an invitation from the NDC to join their protest
The #FixTheCountry campaigners have hinted at a demonstration on August 4, 2021, with the circulation of a new banner.
Some members of the crusade have shared a banner that points to them embarking on such exercise on the aforementioned date.
Since May, the crusaders have been exploring ways of ensuring that their social media activism is felt in the form of a street protest but the Ghana Police Service has been adamant that such exercise will in their wisdom not inure to the benefit of the country.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that the indefinite restraining order slapped on the campaigners by the High Court is not enshrined in law.
The court thus granted that the advocates could embark on the exercise as and when they deem fit.
The new date comes after the Ghana Police Service granted the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress permission to demonstrate on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.
The police had earlier communicated they would not be able to provide security for the protest but made a U-turn after a meeting with the leadership of the party.
George Opare Addo, the National Youth Organizer of the NDC subsequently threw an open invite to the #FixTheCountry activist to align with the NDC.
“I have criticized clearly the decision of the government to prevent the #FixTheCountry movement from embarking on their constitutionally mandated right to demonstrate. I believe that with the police agreeing that they will be around to provide us security, it is time that they also look at the issues pertaining to the #FixTheCountry movement.
“But I am asking everybody, especially members of the #FixTheCountry movement to join hands with the NDC. We are fighting for almost the same thing. I will speak with their leadership and tell them where they can align with our views and opinions so that they come and then whatever they want to do they can use our platform to convey their message,” he said on Citi.
This request was, however, turned down by the campaign with one of their convenors, Oliver Barkers-Vomawor, stating that “one of the things we need to be mindful of is that #FixTheCountry is not a group or entity. When individuals speak, they speak on their own mandate, so I cannot speak for the collective but I think we need to discuss the role of all political actors, including the government and the NDC as well, as to their engagement in the mess we find ourselves.”
“Now, if they are coming forth honestly and acknowledging their role in the mess, that’s fine but if they shift blame, then I don’t think that it aligns with the questions we are asking because we have said that the problems have been with the successive governments and that puts the NDC squarely in what we think is wrong with how this country has been run for some years. So just because they have been granted the chance to protest and ours was denied doesn’t mean our interests necessarily align.”