Occupy Front Lawns of Flagstaff House Demo, Not Middle Class

Who says occupy the front lawns of Flagstaff House demo was middle class Ghanaians?

We were there in our numbers. I mean we the okada riders, the truck pushers, the street boys and girls, the Kayaye, the beggars, the prostitutes, the scrap dealers, the refuse collectors, the tricycle riders, et al. We defiled the rainstorm and strode barefooted to Afua Sundreland’ Park to grace the occasion because the economic turbulence is simply unbearable, it has reached the zenith of our nerves.

Some of us, the truck pushers had to switch our Samsung galaxy S4, and Apple phones off because we knew our customers would call us. They would need our services. They would want us to convey their boxes of imported tomatoes from Burkina Faso, from Tudu to agbogbloshie, they needed us to convey their bags of cassava to Kaneshie and Konkomba. But we mortified ourselves and sacrificed our jobs on that day to show how responsible and patriotic we are as Ghanaians despite our miniature and menial labour intensive jobs.
It is not only the middle class who have been afflicted with ailing economy that has now seen the Ghana cedi further depreciating at an astronomical rate. The cedi which is persistently lagging behind the dollar as if unpaid Black Stars demanding their appearance fee before they rock shoulders with their competitors has brought untold hardship to every single Ghanaian and not a particular class of people. That animal called automatic adjustment formula doesn’t increase utility bills of only the middle class. We all pay taxes, we buy petrol, we board cars, we use electricity and water and pay utility bills. So we came out and joined the demo to vent out our frustration to the government.
So how did the media project and camouflage the demo as media class one? What criteria did they use to conclude that the participants or protesters were middle class citizens? If they considered all of us as middle class then it’s unfortunate. Some of us are not middle class Ghanaians, we are lower class citizens. But who even says the Government listens to the middle class men than the lower class?
When the Concerned Ghanaians For Responsible Governance (CGRG) invited distraught Ghanaians battling with the fever of economic hardship as a result of backlash of the chronic corrupt and seemingly incompetence leaders, they did not state that only the middle class should honour the invitation to occupy the front lawns of Flagstaff House at 6am on Republic day. There was no message embedded in their call for only the middle class in Ghana to come out and sensitize our insensitive leaders about our economic woes.
It was a call for all responsible Ghanaians irrespective of their political affiliations to use the occasion to opine their grievances to the government on the kind of economic quagmire Ghanaians are been dragged through.
On that fateful day, Ghanaians truly came out in an overwhelming number from all walks of life to honour the call. The rain couldn’t stop us neither did the police who blocked the roads and confined us to Afua Sunderland’ Part deter any protester to retreat.

So who were the middle class citizens? If the media spotted one or two CEOs of some reputable companies among the protesters, does that make the whole demo a middle class one? Why didn’t the media tag them as patriotic citizens rather?
Just because the media interviewed us and we mentioned places like Konkomba , chorkor, CMB, Circle etc, as where we came from, they decided not to acknowledge our presence. They thought those who mentioned places like, Cantonment, Airport residential area, Ringway Estates, Roman Ridge, Kanda Estates are the middle class hence they described the demo as such. This is bias and sensational journalism.

I have come to the conclusion that indeed the media is not a true reflection of reality so never trust all what they say.

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