Barely four months after winning the presidential elections of December 2020 for a second term, 'apolitical' activists are challenging President Nana Akufo-Addo's government on its commitment to improving the lives of citizens, due the recent imposition of new taxes and high levels of unemployment.
It all began on Sunday, 2 May 2021. Some Twitter influencers and activists started a thread highlighting problems that they accuse the government of failing to address. They are using the hashtags like #FixGhanaNow, #FixTheCountry and #FixMotherGhana to rally support and gain attention.
They say the cost of living in Ghana is becoming too high and the country has many other pressing problems. Tens of thousands of social media users posted more than half a million tweets on the subjects. Could this hurt the honeymoon that the Akufo-Addo government has enjoyed since the 7 December presidential election?
List of complaints
Some of the issues listed by the campaigners are:
Unemployment;
The rising cost of fuel;
Recent power outages;
Illegal small-scale mining affecting water supplies;
Poor road infrastructure;
Inadequate health infrastructure.
Ghanaians vented their frustrations under the campaign dubbed #FixGhanaNow, which has consistently been trending on Twitter for the past week. However, the government has been countering the campaign with assurances. “The job of the government is to fix problems. This is what we have been doing since 2017. The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the global economy and caused increase in prices of commodities such as oil, cement and iron rods as well as overall cost of shipping. […] Ours is a government that listens and cares. The facts and data speak for themselves. Trust President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo,” vice-president Mahamudu Bawumia said on Facebook on Thursday. Pay up The government is struggling to pay down its debt and is looking to raise more revenue. On 1 May 2021, new taxes introduced by the government took effect.
Read the full story on The Africa report.
Source: Africa report
