Ghana’s Seething Civil Uprising Catches International Attention

The seething youth uprising in Ghana has caught international attention, as the German news network, Deutsche Welle (DW) Africa reports that the “country has been witnessing the highest rise in the cost of living in recent years.”

“Concerns of unstable power supply, hikes in prices of goods including fuel, food staples, tax increments are rife among Ghanaians. Some are accusing the government of deceiving them into believing it had the power to change things,” the DW-Africa report stated.

The BBC has also reported on the youth protest that has been dubbed with the hashtag # FixTheCountry.

So far, the movement which started spontaneously this weekend has generated over 600,000 participants who are using mostly social media to mobilise themselves into what threatens to explode into a full-blown civil uprising. 

The now-popular call to action is brewing a potential uprising that is making the Akufo Addo administration uncomfortable.

The administration is at the receiving end of this growing youth movement, following discontent about 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. 

Already, several media personnel, celebrities, social commentators, civil society organisations and even some political actors have jumped onto the bandwagon of the growing movement.

The government may be desperate to see the discontent does not blow over into full-scale civil unrest, similar to the Arab Spring or the latter ones that had already toppled many governments worldwide.