Costs of living have also soared largely due to the debt-ridden economy wobbling in Akufo-Addo’s seven years in office. Ghana, once touted as the symbol of good governance in Africa, is grappling with high unemployment in a country where the median age is 20.2, 12 percent of its youth are unemployed and another 65 percent are underemployed according to the International Labour Organisation. Labour unions and traders protested last year over price hikes in utility bills, rent and transport. The protest was the latest in a series of demonstrations against the Nana Akufo-Addo-led government as the economy goes through its worst crisis in a generation. “And if the people, whose struggles you document to go ask for money, want accountability, you send Koti make they dey beat them? Lord knows this battle is ours.”Ī wobbling economy and a wave of protests “These people dey borrow in our name,” Popular singer Black Sherif posted in Pidgin English in reference to the ballooning debt situation. On X, formerly known as Twitter, many Ghanaians bashed the government for using force to quell civilian protests. “We condemn the action of the police because there was no need to use brute force on peaceful protesters who have genuine concerns about poor governance and corruption in this country,” its general secretary Fiifi Kwetey told Al Jazeera. Ghana’s largest opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party described Thursday’s police-civilian clash as a “shame”. “We would like to state that the police do not take delight in preventing any group from demonstrating… The exception, in this case, is the police disagreement with the organisers on the venue being a security zone,” Obeng said in a statement. Police spokesperson Juliana Obeng did not comment on the abuse but said they were picked up “in connection with an unlawful assembly”, citing a last-minute court process by the police to stop the planned demonstration. We have “proven that we are indeed not timid people”, the statement added. The protest was organised by Democracy Hub, a governance advocacy group which condemned the use of “brute force to thwart a peaceful protest”, according to a statement issued on Thursday. We only went to register our grievances over how the economy is being mismanaged and the police beat us.” I had a cut on my left arm,” Richard Allotey, a 32-year-old unemployed graduate who was also at the protest, told Al Jazeera on the phone. “They forced us into a waiting bus and physically assaulted us at the police station. Some journalists were also picked up and later released. The police, according to eyewitnesses, physically assaulted the protesters who had gathered in their red and black attires to show anger over hardship in the West African country. Accra, Ghana – At least 49 persons were arrested in Ghana’s capital, Accra, on Thursday as the police tried to prevent protesters trying to storm the seat of government – Jubilee House – on Thursday over a lingering economic crisis.
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