Thousands of youth activists marched through the streets of Accra, Ghana on Tuesday in peaceful protest of President Nana Akufo-government and police violence, which killed two and injured four demonstrators in the country’s south at the end of June.
Demonstrators chanted and held up signs that read: “Youths are unemployed and crying, fix the country!” or “Ghanaians are dying, Akufo-Addo wake up!
Opposition youth activists protest against federal police in Ghana
During the procession, Alisu Ibrahim, a young protester and constituency organizer, accused the police of tyranny.
Ghana’s youth have been using the hashtag #FixTheCountry on Twitter to speak out against the country’s economic hardship for several weeks.
The demonstration was in response to a call by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) main opposition party.
This is the first major demonstration in the country since the Supreme Court rejected in March the appeal of NDC candidate John Mahama, who challenged the results of the presidential election won in December by incumbent President Nana Akufo-Addo.
According to the Electoral Commission, President Nana Akufo-Addo was re-elected with 51.59% of the vote against 47.36% for his predecessor and opponent John Mahama of the NDC. Only 515,524 votes separated the two candidates.
Faced with mounting public debt and the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak, the government has imposed new taxes, which, combined with rising fuel prices, have sparked widespread unhappiness among Ghanaians, as summed up by the hashtag #FixTheCountry.
