Where is the `I Care for You` slogan?

MILLS TASTES RAGE OF DISSENT

By Bismark Bebli

FlASHBACK: Prof Mills leading the CJA on ‘Wahala demo’

President John Evans Atta Mills, who a little over a year ago was leading demonstrations against the Kufuor government, was paid back in his own coin yesterday as thousands of people poured onto the streets of Accra in a rage of dissent over his eight month rule.

Brandishing placards some of which read: ‘Where is I care for you? Atta Mills’; ‘We are suffering’; ‘National Democratic Corruption, (NDC), Atta Mills is 419’; ‘Atta Mills Adaada yen’; ‘Probe Ghana @ 40 first’; ‘1.3 billion for pampers’; ‘We are dying, fix the economy’ and ‘No sakawa’ among a host of others, the demonstrators expressed disgust over the high cost of living among other issues in the country.

The demonstration, which was dubbed - ‘Atta Adaadaa yen’ which literally means ‘President Mills has deceived us’, started from the Holy Gardens at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra amid tight security provided by 380 police men and women. The demonstrators paraded a huge canoe on top of a tipper truck to signify their abhorrence about the way the premix fuel distribution is being handled by the government. Though we are fishing season most fishmen have grounded their canoes because there are no premix fuel to power.

With the support of renowned politicians like Messrs Kan Daapah, former Minister of Defence, Maxwell Kofi Jumah, ex-KMA boss and now MP for Asokwa, Mr. Samuel Crabbe, the Greater Accra regional chairman of NPP, Isaac Asiamah, MP for Mponua, William Boafo, Dr. Akoto Osei, former Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mad Frances Assiam, former NDC National women’s Organizer, Nana Ohene Ntow, General Secretary of NPP among others, the demonstrators also expressed concern about the breach of the constitution by the President and the undue harassment of former NPP Ministers by the government.

Addressing the teeming crowd after almost five hours of marching, singing and dancing through the laid out routes for the demonstration, the spokesperson for AFAG, Mr. Kwabena Bonfre, a.k.a Kabila, noted that contrary to what President Mills promised Ghanaians that he will be a President for all, he rather a President for a few. He also accused the President for allowing the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Muntaka, who was accused of financial malfeasance to escape the laws of the land..

“The man has spent over 300 dollars and you allow him to go scott free, while the one who raised the red flag has been interdicted to the pleasure and excitement of the government,” he alleged.

According to him, the killing of 40 Ghanaians in Gambia, of which the government was able to secure justice for only six of them is another decision that deserves condemnation. “What about the remaining 34 people who died? He has proven that he cannot be a President for all, but rather a President for a few,” he added. Mr. Kabila, who is also the National Youth Organizer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), accused the government of collapsing state institutions.

Kabila also told the large gathering that AFAG did petition the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the allegations against Hon. Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the CHRAJ declined with the explanations that the case was pending before court.

To him, what was before court was the issues raised by a private newspaper, of which the case had been disposed of? AFAG’s Spokesperson further accused the NDC of not fulfilling its promise of providing premix fuel for the fisher folks,.He said, currently the fishermen are now finding it difficult to go fishing because of the lack of premix fuel.

According to him, despite the fact that the group is being intimated and harassed, they would go ahead and fight for justice and democracy, adding that they would not sit down to allow some few people to wreck the nation.

Mr. Kabila, who spoke on a wide range of issues believed that the NDC administration was full of deceit, distortion and lies.

On his part, Mr. Henry Asante, the PNC National Youth Organizer stated that contrary to the current administration’s promise to have a lean government, the number of individuals at the offices of the President and the Veep are more than NPP’s Special Assistants put together.

He urged the President to fix the economy instead of complaining about the actions of the previous government, and said in 1979 when the late President Hilla Limann was given the opportunity to rule the nation, he managed to bring the economy back within three months.

Mr. Daniel Titus Glover, a leading member of the NPP dared the founder of the NDC, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings that there are ‘real men’ in Ghana and that gone are the days when he alone flaunted his machismo around the country.

Interestingly, most leading members of the NPP who participated in the over 5 hours demonstration took the back seat and allowed the youth activists to speak. This phenomenon was contrary to the regime of the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), which was led by Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. and others. The CJA, also a pressure group saw most leading members of the then opposition NDC including their founder at the fore front of their demonstrations.

Source:The Chronicle