‘Ye wuo’ demonstrators are not a jobless lot

This insulting behaviour must stop. Ghanaians have had enough of it and it must stop now. The Kufuor-led NPP and its government have time and again got away with insulting the people of this country. So, they have made it their business to insult the intelligence of the people of Ghana at will. That is what exactly they are doing again with the airtime tax advert on GTV.

With pictures from the December 11 Committee for Joint Action (CJA) Ye wuo demonstration held in Accra, the NPP government is trying to, on one hand, garner support for the cantankerous airtime tax that it is about to force down the ears of the already overtaxed Ghanaian and on the other hand, discourage people from participating in further Ye wuo demonstrations.

Annoyingly enough, true to its character, the NPP government chose to show only pictures of sparse parts of the march to deceive the people of Ghana that it was not overwhelmingly patronised. But in their heat of hearts, they know too well that the march was heavily attended and that is why for six hours running, vehicular traffic flow almost came to a standstill in the capital city.

Once again, GTV provides that platform, and this, Oboshie Sai Coffie and her propaganda outlet are doing much in the same old-fashioned politics of insulting behaviour in the name of Information and National Orientation. National orientation indeed!

In that insulting propaganda piece it calls an advert, the government claims that all the demonstrators need jobs and the only way out is when the yet to be imposed airtime tax comes into effect and monies accumulated to enable government employ these jobless lot under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

It is clear. The NPP government seeks to create an erroneous impression as though the participants in the December 11 ‘Ye wuo’ demonstration took part in the march because they were a jobless lot who had nothing profitable doing. This mantra has been repeated by government spokespersons and paid media agents over and over again and this advert on GTV only goes to give it more impetus. This is yet another insult to the good people of Ghana and must not be tolerated one bit.

Who did not see how the government put into effect a sustained campaign of vilification against the organisers of the demonstration ahead of the march all in a bid to dissuade people from participating in it? Who did not see how they tried using the police to stop the demonstration with the Greater Accra Police Commander DCOP Opare turning himself into a consultant on political conduct and demonstrations when he tried in vain to direct the CJA to use other means of addressing their grievances?

Yours truly was not surprised therefore when in the evening of the successful demonstration he shamelessly was on air saying that the participants were rowdy people brought from problem areas such as Chorkor and Nima in Accra and that is why he deployed 700 policemen to guard the demonstration.

When the government’s efforts to hinder the demonstration failed miserably and the turnout shook its (government’s) very foundation, then they shifted to plan ‘B’. First, are the same government spokespersons, paid media agents and serial callers, and now this advert, saying that the participants were jobless people who had nothing doing.

What they mean by this propaganda therefore is that if all these people were working, they would have concentrated on their jobs and stayed away from demonstrations even if they were dying as a result of the NPP government’s draconian policies, and that the people would have stayed away from the Yewu o demonstration in the face of the untold hardships, the ever-lowering living standards, the high utility tariffs, the high hospital bills, the injustices, the insecurity- arm robbery, contract killings et al- which are the direct result of the incompetent administration of this country by the corrupt Kufuor-led NPP government. So they are saying Ghanaians don’t know what is good for them, huh!

Folks, isn’t it interesting the way the NPP government propagandists can twist and turn their tongues on issues? On one hand they claim that their paymasters have created so many jobs. And on the other hand, people need jobs.

The ‘Ye wuo’ demonstration, like all others was bound to attract people of different social standing. Both the unemployed and the employed, who could sacrifice a bit of their time for the all-important event, were expected. Of course those in gainful employment who could take part were largely those in self-employment and those others whose employers were in favour of the demon stration and allowed them some time off to take part.

Let’s not forget that this was a political march that was organised by political forces. It is therefore naïve on the part of those who are trying hard to create the impression that because especially tie-wearing government workers did not close their offices and joined in the march, it should be adjudged to have attracted only the unemployed. This could only be told to the uninformed in past times, not intelligent Ghanaians in 2007/2008.

In any case, one does not need to be told what would have happened to any government worker who would have participated in a demonstration of this sought under this era of NPP government’s vindictive governance.

Yours truly participated in the march on December 11 last year and saw on first hand what took place. The overwhelming number of people who could not take part in the demonstration but rushed to the roadside to urge the participants on, the thousands of hands that waved through office windows in admiration of the courage of those taking part in the march and also the thousands that showed their appreciation from vehicles with drivers blaring the horns of their vehicles was just amazing.

What about the market women who poured out from the Adabraka Market to express their support for the CJA demonstration when the march got to that area? What about the Fishermen’s Association whose president addressed the crowed that converged at the Hearts Park and called on Ghanaians to reject the NPP government in this year’s elections? Do NPP government’s Oboshie Sai Coffies and their Kwadwo Baah-Wiredus want us to believe that they are all unemployed who need jobs and therefore airtime tax is needed to generate jobs for them?

It is time the NPP government and its agents of darkness understand that times have changed and that 2008 is neither 2000 when plain subterfuge and vile propaganda worked massively to the then NPP opposition party’s advantage, and neither is this 2004 when Prof Mills and the NDC let go of the stolen mandate when the ruling party ‘Mwai Kibaki’ the elections.

This year, the NPP will be laughing at the wrong side of its mouth after the elections in December whether it likes it or not, especially when that party decided that a good ananse storyteller as rowdy as Nana Akufo-Addo should be its flagbearer.

To call a spade a spade, the insult on the intelligence of Ghanaians by this government by the cantankerous airtime tax advert on TV only smacks of a mark of irresponsible government and must be treated with all the contempt it deserves. This advert does them no good but exposes their disrespect for the ordinary people of Ghana who they have made it a point to continue exploiting till the end of time.

The Ye wuo demonstration train stops in the Northern regional capital, Tamale this Saturday January 19 2008. The suffering masses of Ghana will, like the December 11 Accra one, pour onto the streets of Tamale in their tens of thousands in calling a spade a spade and sending a clear message to the insensitive and corrupt Kufuor-led NPP government that enough is enough. Then the NPP government and its media agents should again show to the world peripheral pictures from the march in their campaign of deceit.

Enough of these insults, Ghanaians are not stupid!