More than a 300,000 Twitter call to action under the hashtag # FixTheCountry has ignited the early stages of a civil revolution in Ghana where angry youth are rising to take to task incompetent governments to task for wanton waste of public resources and refusal to provide basic social amenities and infrastructure.
The uprising has started against the Akufo Addo administration as the hundreds of thousands of tweets bemoan the sorry state of the current Ghanaians economy, despite the government having contracted more loans than all governments since independence.
Prominent among the complaints by the youth are sentiments against the rising spate of youth unemployment, abandoned health system, skyrocketing home-renting rates, poor road networks, official connivance with Chinese miners to destroy forest reserves and water bodies across the country and a general lack of commitment to the welfare of Ghanaians citizens.
The avalanche of anger that political scientists warn could explode into an all-out civil uprising is gathering momentum as a non-partisan revolution.
Celebrities and prominent individuals in the media, academia and the social space are joining the fray.
Controversial actress, Afia Odo, adds to the tsunami of tweets: “If you are a Ghanaian and you are not part of #FixTheCountr movement then you’re also part of the problem.”
Renowned sports journalist, Gary Al-Smith wrote: “A day of fixing in GH Twitter. While the people who feel the heat in the system keep firing, those who benefit from the existing system also keep firing back. In the end, all we want is to #FixTheCountry. Simple.”
Ghanaian actor-turned-politician wrote: “The same way I am for #FixTheCountry now, is the same way I will be in 2024 when the NDC comes to power and IF things are not going on well as a country. This country needs to move forward! It’s Ghana first! #FixTheCountry.”
“This is the right time for us to stand up and come together as one people to speak and let them [government] know that we are tired,” Joshua Boye-Doe, a social media user and initiator of the #FixTheCountry campaign said.
Meanwhile, an online petition has also been launched to aid this cause with some 7,000 signatures so far in the last 24 hours.
Earlier, business Tycoon, Dr. Kofi Amoah launched a petition to stop the Akufo Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) from burdening Ghanaians with more foreign loans, saying the ones secured by the government has not yielded any social dividend such that the government needs a top-up.
The Akufo Addo administration is being tipped as the most corrupt and vicious in comparison to other governments since independence.
The government has clamped down on dissenting voices, including the mysterious assassination of investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussein-Suale who was investigating a serious case of corruption at the Jubilee House.
Other journalists such as David Tamakloe, the Editor-in-Chief of Whatsup News has been inexplicably arrested at gunpoint twice within six months for reporting on issues of injustice and corruption.
Others, including Manasseh Awuni Azuri, etc have had to escape into exile or gone into hiding for the explosive revelations they made about the government.
The situation in the country last week forced the hitherto private Dr. Sam Jonah to issue an explosive statement where he warned that the country has degenerated into the days of despotic leadership and the “Culture of Silence”.
The Akufo Addo administration is increasingly regarded as a failed government with a high rate of corruption reports, failure to invest in infrastructure to stem erratic power and water supply and an almost non-existent investment in healthcare, despite the unprecedented financial resources at its disposal.