... Survival march in Kumasi
... its relevance questioned

After several weeks of dispute over the intended “Okafo Didi” demonstration in Kumasi by the NDC, the Ashanti regional police command has finally granted the legal backing (police permit) required for the proposed demonstration.

Chronicle can report that the NDC has not been able to embark upon the demonstration yet, even after it was granted the police permit a couple of weeks ago.

The delay in staging the demonstration is explained in organizational crisis. The party had had to postpone the demonstration on two occasions because regional executives of the party believed the police deliberately attempted to sabotage the party’s constitutional right initially.

On both occasions, the party had notified all its members in the region through its constituency executives to come down to Kumasi for the demonstration since it believed that the success or other wise of the exercise was going to be judged on the basis of the number of demonstrators.

Chronicle’s contacts with a number of people who had earlier determined to be active participants of the demonstration indicate that their determination has now been quenched because the political relevance of the demonstration is now questionable.

According to these people, their encounter with friends of the party point to the fact that the public has completely lost interest in the whole exercise which would have made a great impact if it had not been postponed in the first two instances.

The reluctance of the NDC faithful in and around Kumasi to avail them for the impending demonstration has not eluded the regional executives of the party.

Chronicle has uncovered the awareness of the regional executives about the difficulty the party will now have to go through in mobilizing its supporters for the exercise.

Mr. Kwasi Abayie, the regional organizer of the party, says the demonstration would definitely come even if it delays for a decade. He explained that after having disappointed party followers on two occasions, the party would have to do some serious organizational work.

He stressed that it requires massive effort to convince supporters to avail themselves of any particular day for the demonstration because people are now dissuaded by the two earlier postponements.

On his part, the deputy regional propaganda secretary, Mr. Alex Yaw Poku, noted that the party has uncovered an alleged plot by some NPP supporters to disguise themselves as NDC sympathizers and cause riots on the day of the demonstration.

These, among other things, he said, require that the party strengthen its supporters who might capitalize on the demonstrations to cause trouble in the name of the NDC.

For now, political analysts are left wondering whether the NDC can still mobilize enough of its supporters to embark upon a successful ‘Okafo Didi” demonstration in the Garden City of Kumasi.

It is, however, being rumoured that the high spirits of NDC loyalists towards the impending demonstration might have been dampened by the recent disclosure by Mr. F.F. Anto, Ashanti regional chairman of the NPP, that his party was going to embark upon a massive demonstration against the ex-President, Mr. J.J. Rawlings, anytime he set foot in Kumasi.

The ex-President had earlier indicated on July 7 in Kumasi that he along side other NDC gurus was going to be actively involved in the demonstration. The announced presence of the ex-President on the D-day in the face of Anto’s declaration has left many NDC loyalists in fear that the impending demonstration, if embarked upon, was going to be a recipe for what could be described as “the Clash of the Titans.”