Anti-US demo: Mahama must spare us another mockery – IMANI Boss

President John Mahama must discourage Friday’s anti-US demonstration in Accra, IMANI-Ghana President Franklin Cudjoe has suggested. Mr Cudjoe fears the march will worsen the international mockery suffered by Ghanaians in the past few weeks.

He said the President must “use his office to stop any group of unemployed youth and adults with their fat-feeding minders on free taxes that I hear are planning a demonstration against the United States Embassy for suggesting that we all truly sacrifice, fight grand theft and corruption, stop the talk, [and] be prudent monetarily and fiscally.”

Two groups, Progressive Socialists Forum of Ghana and the New Politics Network are rallying support on social media to organise a demonstration against the American Embassy in the West African country over a cheeky response tweeted at their President by the Embassy’s official handle.

The flippant retort was a response to the following tweet posted by the President, John Dramani Mahama: “As a people, we have had to make sacrifices. I wish to assure you that the results of these sacrifices would begin to show very soon.”

“And what sacrifices are you making? Don't tell me that pay cut,” was the riposte from the Embassy's handle.

This sparked a social media blitz with critics taking on the Embassy over what the Mission later said was a mix-up, for which it apologised to the President, his Office and Ghanaians.

Despite the apology, the demonstrators are seeking to petition the US President through the American Ambassador to Ghana, Gene A. Cretz, to have the Embassy staff, who the Mission claims mistakenly posted the personal tweet using the Embassy’s official handle, to apologise to President John Mahama and Ghanaians over the blunder.

The demonstrators also want the Embassy to take action against the staff responsible for the faux pas.

Franklin Cudjoe in a Facebook post said: “Whilst we have every right to be angry at hearing the obvious and the truth, we should be minded that as long as Ghana begs the US government for money all the time, including the recently announced $500m for energy and agriculture-related projects, including sanitary pads, and later supervise scams like GYEEDA, SUBAH and SADA at the peril of millions of poor souls in Ghana, you will be subjected to such political ridicule including international jokes.”

“President Mahama, please task your employment minister to register all these idle hands and unpatriotic souls intending to protest so they could be given farm tools to till the land [with] the American money you beg for on our behalf so we can grow more food and fight food inflation,” Cudjoe said.

He implored the President to “urge some of the folks who plan demonstrating against the US to join” the many groups in the country who are either demonstrating against economic hardships or on strike over same.

“Please stop them from mocking us again,” he pleaded, adding: “We are still recovering from the $3m airlifting to Brazil and your many supporters seeking asylum, running away from the Better Ghana Agenda we all seem to be happily covered with against the gnashing of teeth and wailing and wagging of dissident tongues.”