Ghanaian dancehall artiste, Charles Nii Armah Mensah has warned that a spectre of the violent youth uprising in the country is looming.
In an interview on Accra-based Metro TV’s ‘Good Evening Ghana’ show, he made the chilling revelation that the country’s youth, out of disenchantment with its current political class, are stockpiling guns and machetes in anticipation of a time to strike.
“People want to rise up but it’s just that you know, people like me tell people to calm down, you know because we are in Ghana now and I won’t lie to you, this is like a serious thing am about to say like, people are having guns they are ready to fight, people are having cutlasses, people are buying machetes every time in Ghana,” he said.
Expressing his discontent with the political class, Shatta Wale suggested a new political ideology to take over from the hegemony of the NPP and the biggest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC). “We need a new party. NDC, NPP, Ghanaians are tired,” Shatta Wale stressed.
Shatta Wale in the interview also expressed disappointment in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) for failing to address the despair in the Ghanaian economy. This perhaps the umpteenth time Shatta Wale has jabbed the NPP which he strongly supported during the 2016 general elections.
Indeed, in appreciation of the role he played, he was the first artiste to have been personally invited to the Jubilee House shortly after President Akufo Addo was sworn in as President in 2017.
The self-acclaimed Dancehall King who recently featured as a guest vocalist on a song with American pop superstar, Beyonce, explained to Paul Adom Otchere that people feel the only way to put the country on a prosperous footing is to kick out the politicians.
“…to fight for their rights, to make the country a better place because they are not seeing where the money is going to, they are working and they are not making money; people are living in the ghettos and constantly they have to be paying bills and Trotro drivers have to get fuel and price hikes and like its serious in our country,” the musician said of people’s justifications.
According to Shatta Wale, signs of the fearful threat are hiding in plain sight but the politicians are ignoring them. He noted that the numerous strikes by public sector workers are one of those signs.
He said the political class’ decision to turn a blind eye has made the situation a dangerous possibility that could replicate the Rwandan genocide in Ghana.
“I won’t talk about us musicians because musicians we have accepted that we are failures, so we don’t want to talk about it, but you see nurses going on strike, lawyers going on strike, like doctors; I feel the politicians see them s oh these ones, they will soon tire and stop so uprising of the youth is serious
“People are fed up now, people want to go to the rich places and take what is theirs in the rich houses, people want to demolish people’s houses, people want to enter the East Legons, they want to enter the Cantonments, and do whatever they want to do because they feel like, you have the money, you are spending the money, and the politicians are keeping a blind eye to it because they feel like, these leave them, they will stop when they tire,” he said. “But the generation we are in now is full of technology, one person can go on Facebook or Twitter and say let us start and it will start and to stop it will be like Rwanda before we can stop it,” he warned.